French Cancan

French Cancan (also known as Only the French Can) is a 1955 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Jean Renoir and starring Jean Gabin, Francoise Arnoul and María Félix. It marked Renoir's return to France and to French cinema after an exile that began in 1940. Where Renoir's previous film, The Golden Coach (1952), had celebrated the 18th-century Italian commedia dell'arte, this work is a homage to the Parisian café-concert of the 19th century, with its popular singers and dancers. Visually, the film evokes the paintings of Edgar Degas and the Impressionists, including Renoir's own father, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.