This film was released 17th December 2010, and is no longer screening.

This restored version of Jean Renoir’s timeless social satire offers a welcome reminder how the greatest films never grow old. When an impeccably right-on Paris bookseller selflessly jumps into the Seine to rescue a drowning tramp, the last thing he expects is for the vagabond in question to take up residence in his house and reduce the place to chaos. In a legendary performance which combines Chaplinesque mischief and gruff lechery, Michel Simon is, quite simply, a force of nature as the magnificently bearded Priape Boudu, who doesn’t see why he should wear a tie and polish his shoes just because he’s living under a roof for a change. The film thumbs its nose at bourgeois smugness with such relish that police were called to calm outraged audiences at its initial 1932 screenings, though these days perhaps we’re more likely to notice the way Renoir finds a quirky humanity in all his characters, not least the snooty wife and frisky maid. Just delightful.(Notes by Trevor Johnston).