Jean Renoir’s vibrant reimagining of Belle Époque Paris. Inspired by the life of the Moulin Rouge founder, this 1955 musical comedy tells the story of a cabaret impresario (played by the great Jean Gabin, in his fourth collaboration with Renoir) caught between two lovers, a working-class showgirl and an Egyptian belly dancer. A highlight from Renoir’s late-career work, the film is the first he made in France after a long period of exile in the U.S., and its many pleasures—including a cameo by Edith Piaf and dazzling cinematography that recalls the impressionism of the director’s own father, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. “The most joyous hymn to the glory of art in the history of cinema.” – Andrew Sarris (1955, 102 min., in French w/ English subtitles)
