This movie by Jean Renoir is a variation on the theme of the 'noble savage', here in the shoes of a tramp played superbly by a young Michel Simon. The 'noble savage' is obviously totally unsuited for bourgeois life and certainly for monogamy. His sexual drive is not yet 'tamed'. He is only comfortable in the open nature with his comrades, the animals, even if he survives merely through 'donations' by the bourgeois. The 'noble savage' is also a 'good male', a theme dear to Jean Renoir. He treated it wonderfully in his short film 'A Day in the Country' based on the story by Guy de Maupassant. The movie is also an admirable evocation of the atmosphere of a city (Paris) and its crowds in the years before 1940 in Europe. Masterfully directed (perfectly natural acting by its cast) this movie is a masterpiece of real French cinema.
Review of Boudu Saved from Drowning
