Partie de campagne (1936/I)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Jean Renoir (writer)
Guy de Maupassant (short story)

Release Date:

8 May 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Short | Romance

Plot:

The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love to a man at the inn, where they spend the day.

Plot Keywords:

Picnic | Based On Short Story | Countryside | River | Lost Love

Cast

Sylvia Bataille	...	Henriette
Georges D'Arnoux	...	Henri (as Georges Saint-Saens)
Jane Marken	...	Madame Dufour (as Jeanne Marken)
André Gabriello	...	Monsieur Dufour (as Gabriello)
Jacques B. Brunius	...	Rodolphe (as Jacques Borel)
Paul Temps	...	Anatole
Gabrielle Fontan	...	La grand' mère / Grandmother
Jean Renoir	...	Père Poulain / Uncle Poulain
Marguerite Renoir	...	La servante / Waitress
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pierre Lestringuez	...	Un vieux curé / Old priest

Also Known As:

A Day in the Country

Runtime:

40 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Hong Kong:I

Filming Locations:

Bords du Loing, Montigny-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France

Company:

Panthéon Productions

Trivia:

Cameo: [Georges Bataille]in the procession of priests and seminarians

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II (1993) (TV)

Renoir meets Maupassant:up where they belong.

Unfinished,this is a one of Renoir's most remarkable works.As far as Guy DE Maupassant is concerned,only Max OPhuls's "le plaisir"(1951) and Christian-Jaque's "Boule de Suif" (1950)equal it.

This is apparently a very simple story:a couple of bourgeois (Jane Marken and Gabriello) ,their daughter (Sylvia Bataille) and her less-than-handsome husband leave for a day in the country (title).There the young girl meets love ,short-lived happiness.

Beneath the placid surface,tragedy emerges.The beautiful landscape,the simmering water,the whispering grass,the swings which seem to reach for a pure sky,the small fish you savor in the guinguettes down by the river,the thrill of it all!The young girl's longing for true love is harder to endure in such a peaceful paradise.This is one of these rare movies in which you experiment happiness tinged with an infinite sadness.

A whole sequence is missing:a card explains the events which were not filmed.Sylvia Bataille's last line(to the man she fell in love with) will make you cry out:"I've been thinking of it every day".Woman has always been sacrificed in Maupassant's work.At a running time of 40 minutes,a lot of people claim it for Renoir's best though.I do.Claude Renoir marvelously conveys Maupassant's depictions with his pictures.