Bruant

He helped brand the angle of a dancer’s leg in the famous poster advertising La Goulue’s performances at the Moulin Rouge, and the red scarf and imperious sneer of the singer and cafe owner Aristide Bruant.

While Bruant is given a few minutes of stage time – tossing off insults at his customers, as he was known to do — most of the other figures we meet flit by in a swirl of skirts and a line or two: “We’re famous!”

The facade retains the outsize face of cabaret singer Aristide Bruant that once signaled French food inside.

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff; written by Cyril Gely and Mr. Schlöndorff, based on the play “Diplomatie,” by Mr. Gely; director of photography, Michel Amathieu; edited by Virginie Bruant; set design by Jacques Rouxel; costumes by Mirjam Muschel; produced by Marc de Bayser and Frank Le Wita, with Sidonie Dumas and Francis Boespflug; released by Zeitgeist Films.

She owed something to M. Xanrof, who for a long time composed songs especially for her, and perhaps still more to Aristide Bruant, who wrote many of her argot songs.