“For Renoir, Nana (an adaptation of Zola's novel) was ‘the first of his films worth mentioning.' Nana was directly influenced by Stroheim's Foolish Wives, but is nonetheless a highly original film. The constant contrast between masters and servants was a theme Renoir was to turn to again in Rules of the Game and The Diary of a Chambermaid. The script of the film follows rather closely the Zola novel; Nana (Catherine Hessling) is an ambitious little actress who tries to bite off more than she can chew. After a complete failure in a ‘big' role, she turns to the life of a sort of Second Empire call-girl, a ‘femme fatale' who destroys the men in love with her until she too is finally destroyed.” François Truffaut