Nana

Nana acts in the theatre and is bad at it. Once she sees she cannot hold a stage she takes another route: men. Count Muffat is caught by her, a married, devout man with a position at court. Nana takes his money, his standing and eventually his house. There is also young Georges, and others. Nobody can give her up, and everyone around her goes under in turn. In the end there is nothing left in her hands either. Jean Renoir directs the French silent; two hours and forty-eight minutes, with Catherine Hessling as Nana and Werner Krauss as Muffat, adapted from Émile Zola's novel. Renoir financed it himself, selling paintings he had inherited from his father to do it; the film failed at the box office and he carried that debt for a long time.