Nobody films open-air cinema better than Jean Renoir

Even mediocre Jean Renoir films have some wonderful and amazing elements that make them worth watching at least once. "La Bete Humaine" is mediocre Renoir, and therefore a cut above move movies of its era or maybe ever. The problems: a rather confusing, melodramatic plot with a couple of murders and potential murders and with a weirdly unexplained plot element in which the seemingly nice-guy protagonist, a railroad station manager, nearly strangles the girl he loves - and then she disappears from the picture. The film is adapted from the Zola novel, and I think we see here the problem of trying to manage the social and narrative complexities of the great 19th-century realism novels - Zola, Dickens, above all - in a 90-minute span. Today, these works can be and are often told through the miniseries - Bleak House and Little Dorrit two excellent examples, and isn't there a Germinal miniseries out there, too? As to the strengths, two elements come to mind: an absolutely beautiful opening sequences on the French railroads, as we see the engineers dealing expertly with the difficult and dangerous job of managing these locomotives and some great footage shot from a moving train racing along the tracks - a vanished world for sure and still very interesting to see from the inside (Cousin Fred, take note!); second, to this day nobody does en plain air cinema better than Renoir (the legacy of his father is obvious) - this film has a stunning sequence when the station manager visits his godmother in the country, as well as other beautiful nighttime exteriors. Renoir fans will remember the many great country scenes in Rules of the Game. Bete is no Rules of the Game, but it's pretty good in its own right.