Charleston (film)

Despite the success of the public in France, the major financial failure of the film " Nana " (1926), which Renoir partially funded ^[1] , forced the director to go on to stage production of purely commercial films for some time. Renoir later spoke of his silent paintings: “ I made only one film -“ Nana ”; the rest is sport and commerce ” ^[2] . According to Pierre Leproon , many other French filmmakers and Renoir contemporaries, such as Jean Epstein , Marcel L'Erbier , Germain Dulac, and who were forced to shoot obviously commercial products for their attempts to create original works, were forced to take this path ^[3] . On this occasion, Renoir wrote ^[3] :

I found a job and produced colorless films on order. These pictures were not successful, but the producers were pleased. They considered my work "commercial." In the jargon of filmmakers, a commercial film is not one that makes box office receipts, but one that is conceived and executed according to the canons of the market.

The next picture of Renoir after the film adaptation of the novel by Emile Zola was the burlesque “fantastic study” in the spirit of the paintings of Georges Méliès - “Charleston” ^[4] . Renoir used the numerous remnants of the film left after the film “Nana” to shoot a short film “without any concessions”, in which the director paid tribute to fashionable jazz in the twenties and the American dancer Johnny Higgins, who settled in Paris in those years ^[5] .

Filmed in 1926 according to the script of Pierre Lestrenge and the idea of ​​Andre Serf, in a limited budget, this unassuming film in musical hall aesthetics and with fashionable jazz rhythms did not have financial success, was criticized for vulgarity and has survived to the present day in the half version ^{[4 ]} .

According to the director himself, this film was never finished, which he later regretted, and he calls the remaining parts interesting where his wife looked amazing in him: “It is curious that this film or, more precisely, a piece of this consciously avant-garde film , which born of my enthusiasm for jazz, was well received by the press. Nevertheless, her favorable testimonies did not open the doors of cinema halls before him ” ^[5] .

According to the French critic Jacques Brunius, this Renoir film is adjacent to the avant-garde experiences of the twenties, among which is the " Intermission " of Rene Clair , to which the "Charleston" is far away, but which in turn was "a poetic, funny and worthwhile experience, but too malleable and not sufficiently inventive ” ^[6] .

Catherine Goessling circa 1925

According to Francois Truffaut, in this film, the exploitation of the eroticism of Renoir’s wife, which began with Nana, is intensified and consistently carried out. Also, in his opinion, “ this debauch of naked thighs and breasts, demonstrated by a dancer in swimming trunks and a half-open corsage, shocked the audience ”, which largely explains the commercial failure of the picture: “ Because of its pure burlesque spirit,“ Charleston ”had no success, however what is left of a thousand two hundred meters of the film amuses and captivates with its immediacy and unbridled imagination ” ^[7] .

Andre Bazin , who called Catherine Gössling the real queen of silent paintings by Renoir, wrote that in this film he is " not so much working with his performer depending on her character and stage dramaturgy as contemplating her in the maximum number of poses, " which is especially noticeable in the film “Charleston” - “ whose insignificant and bizarre script is just an excuse for the unusual and erratic screening of Catherine Gessling ” ^[8] .

In the ice-covered and uninhabited post-apocalyptic Europe (" Terra incognita "), a black-skinned research scientist arrives on a scientific expedition on an aircraft, who discovers there a half-naked white savage who introduces him to the local dance - Charleston . Representatives of two civilizations find understanding through body language and gestures, and the native tries to teach the scientist local dance. In the finale of the picture, the researcher persuades the savage to fly with him to Africa.

• Catherine Goessling - Dancer

• Johnny Higgins - Negro, Researcher
• Pierre Bronberger - angel
• Pierre Lestrenge - angel
• Jean Renoir - Angel
• Andre Cerf - angel

• Bazin, Andre . Jean Renoir / Preface Jean Renoir . Enter Francois Truffaut . - M.: Museum of Cinema , 1995 . - 191 p. - ISBN 5-88395-012-4 .

• Jean Renoir: Articles, interviews, memoirs, scripts. - M.: Art , 1972 . - 256 s.
• Leproon, P. Modern French filmmakers. - M .: Publishing house of foreign literature , 1960. - 698 p.
• Sadul, J. Chapter LVIII French cinema 1925-1929 // Volume 4. Part 2. Hollywood. The end of silent cinema, 1919-1929. - M .: Art , 1982. - S. 281 - 341. - 557 p.

• " Charleston ” on the Internet Movie Database