So, why exactly did Jean-Luc Godard say Jean Renoir's made-for-TV movie Le Testament du docteur Cordelier was one of the 6 best French films since the Liberation? Or that it was the third best film of 1961? Renoir's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is rather blasé stuff: the directing is none too inspired; it isn't very stylistically interesting; and perhaps most crucially, Renoir's faithfulness to the more lurid aspects of Stevenson's novel prevents him from fully engaging in his trademark humanism and floating detachment. But as a cheap piece of pulp, it's not without its merits, particularly Jean-Louis Barrault's enthusiastically wonky performance as the dastardly Hyde stand-in Opale. But it's not "best French film" material.
6/10
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