Back in 2007 Lionsgate in partnership with Studio Canal released a 3 CD Collector’s Edition set of early to late movies from renowned French filmmaker Jean Renoir (GRAND ILLUSION, RULES OF THE GAME). The set included 5 features and 2 short films covering 1925-1962. Now in 2021 Kino Lorber, who in the past few years has acquired an impressive array of eclectic films, is releasing on Blu-Ray the two major silent movies from that set. They are LA FILLE DE L’EAU (WHIRLPOOL OF FATE) from 1925 and NANA from 1926. This review will concern itself with WHIRLPOOL OF FATE.
Renoir’s first film, made when he was 30 years old and starring his first wife Catherine Hessling (who had modeled for his father Pierre-Auguste Renoir) was WHIRLPOOL. Essentially a melodrama in the style of D.W. Griffith, it concerns the plight of a young woman who works on a canal barge with her father and uncle. After the father dies in a work related accident, she escapes from her drunken, lecherous uncle and winds up with a group of gypsies who take care of her. She meets a young thief there and after many trials and tribulations, she marries the son of a middle class family and it all works out.
Although the story is clearly indebted to Griffith, the visuals are Renoir’s own. WHIRLPOOL contains scenes that would be recast in later movies such as F.W. Murnau’s SUNRISE (1927) and Jean Vigo’s L’ATALANTE (1934). The highlight is a dream sequence which is worthy of Hitchcock. Hessling, wearing stark monochromatic make-up, gives a respectable silent film performance as the hapless orphan who goes from one mishap to another. The male performers acquit themselves well in what are essentially one-dimensional characters who are strictly plot motivated.
This new Kino Lorber Blu-Ray is a nice upgrade from the 2007 DVD release. The picture has undergone a 4K restoration effort which helps to clear up some of the contrast issues especially in the night scenes and gives a sharper image throughout. The original concertina score by Marc Perrone has been replaced with one by Antonio Coppola. It is more user friendly in that it offers more variety but I prefer the original which enhances the bleakness of the story. The Blu-Ray comes with an audio commentary by critic Nick Pinkerton that provides background on Renoir and the film.
The Capsule Critic 