Petite marchande d'allumettes, La (1928)

Directors:

Jean Renoir
Jean Tédesco

Writers:

Hans Christian Andersen (story)
Jean Renoir (writer)

Release Date:

8 June 1928 (France)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Vision | Winter | Tragic | Poverty | Snow

Cast

Catherine Hessling	...	Karen
Manuel Raaby
Jean Storm	...	Axel Ott
Amy Wells
Anny Xells

Also Known As:

The Little Match Girl

Runtime:

40 min

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Trivia:

Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce, dances a small duet as a toy soldier in this film. She had studied under Isadora Duncan's eccentric brother Raymond.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Little Match Girl (1987) (TV)

Striking visuals undermined by a miscast lead

La Petite Marchande D'Allumettes aka The Little Match Girl also suffers from an unconvincing and badly cast lead performance from Mrs Renoir, Catherine Hessling, who looks anything but little and more than capable of looking after herself, which certainly takes the edge off Hans Christian Andersen's tale. Indeed, the film makes a couple of attempts to write itself out of the problem by portraying her as more than usually stupid, but they feel more like in-jokes than anything else. It's a shame, because the film itself is an impressively staged fantasy with great special effects and some interesting visual experimentation with camera speed and focus amid the unashamedly romantic treatment of the fantasy scenes, especially the sequence where the girl and her toy soldier are chased through the clouds by Death in the form of a relentless Hussar. If only you could care about the character. Lions Gate's transfer is rather more worn than their other Renoir titles, being mastered from a 1959 reissue with a good synchronised soundtrack.