Based on the classic Émile Zola novel, Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine was one of the legendary director’s greatest popular successes, released in France in 1938 and tapping into the fatalism of a nation in despair. Jean Gabin’s emblematic portrayal of doomed train engineer Jacques Lantier – who falls in love with a married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder - granted him a permanent place in his nation’s hearts. La Bête Humaine features terrific train action scene cinematography from Curt Courant and editing by Suzanne de Troeye and Marguerite Renoir.