Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (or Little Red Riding Hood) was an experimental take on the Red Riding Hood story directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (who was one of the director's of the 1945 horror anthology Dead of Night). Avant garde artist Jean Renoir was deeply involved in the production of the film, which was 1 hour in length. Renoir was not only primarily responsible for the adaptation to a screenplay format (which was done with Cavalcanti), he was also the Compère de Loup or wolf of the film. Only in this adaptation, the wolf takes the form of a lecherous tramp. Descriptions of the film make it clear that whatever form that wolf's attempt to devour Red Riding Hood took, it was in some form sexual. This is made even more clear when the few stills of Le petit Chaperon rouge, played by Catherine Hessling, are examined (Hessling was Renoir's wife at the time). Descriptions of the film make it clear that the story has been completely modernized and are meant to be artistically tongue-in-cheek. The film was completed in 1929, and released as a silent/partial sound film in France in the spring of 1930. That fall it was re-released with a soundtrack. This Jean Renoir...so you know it had to be pretty weird.
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