La Bete Humaine

La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast) is a film directed by Jean Renoir based on one of Emile Zola’s novels. This film was first released in 1938. The film stars Jean Gabin as Jacques Lantier, the train engineer who struggles on the edge of madness. Simone Simon stars as Severine Roubaud who is his lover. She is also married. The film brings Emile Zola’s novel to life through its dispassionate speed. We sense the urgency in the film by the speeding train which is captured in several frames, yet we also sense that the fate of the characters is beyond their control. It is in their nature to act as they have.

The film begins with a close up shot on the train’s engine. It is a scene of a blazing fire. For this to be the first shot in the film we can only guess that the main characters will experience this fire in terms of violence or disruption in their lives. We then are introduced to Jacques Lantier and his assistant, Pecqueux who are running the train. Rapidly in a succession of edits we are brought outside the speeding train focused on the wheels, then to the tracks ahead, and back into the train. This is repeated so we get the feeling of the immense speed they are traveling and the danger.

The film is shot in natural daylight with extra lights to illuminate the faces of the characters. In the scene where Jacques goes to visit his godmother, her face looks very bright. This may be to symbolize the intimate knowledge she has of his illness.

Jacques Lantier teeters on the edge of madness. We witness his madness when he visits his godmother’s daughter, Flora. While Flora and he are embraced he suffers a blackout and starts to strangle her. Only does he loosen his grip when a loud train passes by. It appears that trains offer some comfort to his madness. This may be because the danger and speed they exhibit is parallel to the disturbances in his brain.

We first meet Severine Roubaud in the film while she is in front of a bright window holding a fluffy white cat. The look on her face is that of a soft femme fatale. She has full knowledge of her beauty but uses it over men in a cute, helpless manipulating manner. Cats symbolize mystique so we can assume that the cat is symbolic of her personality and there will be surprises concerning her in the film.

Jacques and Severine meet and he is so smitten by her he covers for her and her husband after witnessing the murder they commit. Throughout Jacques and Severine’s affair they are encased in darkness. The darkness represents how forbidden, dangerous and hopeless the affair is. Only when the husband, Roubaud, acknowledges the affair to his wife do we next see the lovers bathed in light. We sense the absence of secrecy and acceptance through the lighting. Murder is proposed by Jacques to Severine to end the nuisance of her husband forever. She agrees on that solution. We next see the lovers in darkness again. The sinister plot has thrown them back into hell and its darkness.

Renoir places his characters carefully in each of the frames. An example of this is while the lovers are in bed together they confess personal details of their lives to one another. When Jacques is confessing he is on top in the frame and while she is confessing she is on top. This is symbolic of dominance.