After his directorial debut of Whirlpool of Fate, legendary director Jean Renoir came back with his second offering, Nana from 1926.

Nana stars the director’s wife Catherine Hessling as the title character, and is the story an actress without tact or morals. Nana is arrogant, vain, and admired by men because she’s so beautiful! She uses her looks and sexuality to gain parts in a play that she is not qualified for, which causes the play to bomb and shut down. After that she casts her sexual spell and becomes the mistress of a Count Muffat (legendary German actor Werner Krauss, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Opium) ruins his life, and then moves on to other wealthy men who fall for her charms.

Nana is a good, if overlong film, running for nearly three hours. It can cause some to tune out because of the length. Admittedly three hours of Catherine Hessling playing an unhinged character is a bit much to sit through as she overacts the part to some degree. Nana does feature beautiful sets and great cinematography Jean Bachelet and Edmund Corwin

Kino presents Nana on Blu-ray now sporting a brand a new 4K restoration. The image quality is practically flawless with a smooth, polish appearance with hardly any print damages. The source appears to be in great shape. The grey scale looks balanced and details to the scenery and characters just flourish here. There is a vast amount of detail in the image with rich textures to the scenery and clothing the actors wear. The first few minutes are a bit sketchy but soon afterwards the picture looks stunning

Kino presents the film with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that sounds excellent with the Antonio Coppola’s musical score coming in clearly without any distortions or issues such as hissing

Kino’s release offers several extras including an audio commentary by Film Historian Nick Pinkerton who once again provides an insightful commentary track

Before-And-After Restoration Comparison which takes a closer look at Nana before and after the films’ restoration

Trailers for Ponette, Tous les matins du monde, and Under The Sand round out the extras.

With terrific audio and video quality for Nana, fans of renowned director Jean Renoir can now see one his earliest films in the best presentation possible. Easily recommended!

Nana

Director- Jean Renoir

Cast- Catherine Hessling, Jean Angelo, Werner Krauss

Country of Origin- France

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-10/1/21