A tapestry is usually a series of scenes linked together by similarity of theme, nothing more. Renoir calls French Can-Can a tapestry. It flows … with stately inevitability from one composition to the next. (p. 18)

It might have been a noble story with the Moulin Rouge in the rôle of the Great Ideal. Renoir prefers the truth. Danglard [the central character], training and moulding his discoveries till they are stars, seducing them and moving on to his next conquest, is not a likeable figure. The Montmartre society in which he moves is unattractive, even a little sordid, however cleverly it is framed in the colour compositions of Renoir, Michel Kelber and Max Douy. Thus the film captures the authentic atmosphere of the period.

The trouble is that a film, presented as a series of pictures, tends to lack continuity and climax. It comes to you like snatches of...