The Cinematheque

Imported 35mm Print

Jean Renoir’s first made-in-France movie after a 15-year exile abroad was a feast-for-the-eyes re-creation of Belle Époque Paris and a dazzling tribute to the art of his renowned father, painter Auguste Renoir, and the other Impressionists. Described by the director ​“as a piece of tapestry, a composition in colour,” the film is a high-kicking backstage musical set against the founding of the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret in the 1880s. Jean Gabin plays Danglard, an aging impresario who falls for Montmartre laundress Nini (Françoise Arnoul) and sets out to make her a star, over the jealous objections of Lola (Maria Félix), his fiery mistress. Edith Piaf and several other well-known French music-hall performers have cameos. Noted American critic Andrew Sarris called French Cancan ​“the most joyous hymn to the glory of art in the history of cinema.”