Review of Nana

From the Zola novel, the classic tale of a bad woman, the destruction she leaves in her wake, and the price she pays. Nana (Catherine Hessling) plays the part of a rather bad actress who turns courtesan. Hessling, striving to play the part of a shameless, manipulative, greedy fallen woman, is much given to flouncing and petulant looks, with a very peculiar body language involving slouching the shoulders, resting the hands on the hips, jutting the head forward, and narrowing the eyes or flashing looks or laughing or pouting with sensual defiance. That's pretty much the whole story—she embodies raw sexuality which tempts several noblemen to give up everything for her, and this destroys them. In the end, she too must pay the ultimate price, death by smallpox, cut down in her youth and pride and flouncing. Hessling is so much better as the hard-done-by waif in Renoir's Catherine and La fille de l'eau of 1924 and 1925. Except for the loving eye to detail, it's hard to recognize Renoir's hand in this cliché-ridden story, which retells the same old tired story about female sexuality and sin.