“Jean Renoir's French Cancan...is an extraordinarily beautiful film of cinematic maturity. Renoir's aging into impressive personal films that reflect the softening contours of his sensuous world is aesthetically parallel to the growth of John Ford and Luis Buñuel and such elite works as The Searchers and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. French Cancan is an artist's tribute to art, with (Jean) Gabin, a dedicated impresario, the alter ego to Renoir, a dedicated filmmaker. Against the pastel-colored backgrounds of Auguste Renoir's Paris, the characters in the movie all seek to find some modus vivendi between art and life, but only the impresario knows that ultimately his cancan dancers will engulf their audience, just as art engulfs life--and that the cancan will take its place in its society, just as art, drawn from life, becomes a part of life. Renoir hurls his cancan dancers at the audience and dares it to withdraw from the consuming spectacle, (one) which is...inherently kinetic and ineffably beautiful.” Andrew Sarris and Tom Allen, Village Voice