Partie de campagne
Tags: cult

Plot synopsis:
Monsieur Dufour (André Gabriello), a shop-owner from Paris, takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at the roadside restaurant of Poulain (Jean Renoir), two young men there, Henri (Georges D'Arnoux) and Rodolphe (Jacques B. Brunius), take an interest in Dufour's daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille) and wife Madame Dufour (Jane Marken). They scheme to get the two women off alone with them. They offer to row them along the river in their skiffs, while they divert Dufour and his shop assistant and future son-in-law, Anatole (Paul Temps), by lending them some fishing poles. Though Rodolphe had arranged beforehand to take Henriette, Henri maneuvers it so that she gets into his skiff. Rodolphe then good-naturedly settles for Madame Dufour.
Henri rows to a secluded spot on the riverbank which he refers to as his "private office". Though Henriette initially rebuffs his amorous advances, she eventually gives in. He asks her to come see him again, but she says that her father would never permit her to venture into the countryside by herself.
Years pass, and Henriette marries Anatole. One day, they end up at the place where Henri seduced Henriette. While Anatole dozes, his wife takes a walk, and encounters Henri. With tears in her eyes, she reminisces about their brief time together. Then, when Anatole wakes up, Henri hides until they leave.

Review: There are those, this reviewer included, who believe Renoir originally intended this film as one-half of a double feature of Guy De Maupassant adaptations.
Whatever might have once been planned, however, does nothing to soften the radiant beauty and brilliance of the film.Renoir had collected around himself a group of friends and family in the hope of creating what he later described as a "holiday" atmosphere during the scheduled week of filming.
In accordance with the story on which it is based, long summer days and balmy afternoons by the river banks were called for in Renoir's script.
Eventually, after refusing Sylvia Bataille's request for leave so she might audition for a future project in Paris, the director himself nonchalantly announced he would be abandoning the film to concentrate his efforts on his next film, Les Bas-fonds.Considering all of the above, it is miraculous that the film we see today is such a luminous, sensual masterpiece.Much is made of Renoir's use of deep focus techniques in films such as Le Regle de Jeu and La Grande Illusion, quite rightly so, but it is also used to great effect in this film.
It is an exhilarating moment in cinema, the sudden infusion of life and nature into the film echoes in the viewer's mind throughout the short running time.Renoir is a great film-maker, perhaps the greatest of all, and this is a great film, perhaps his greatest of all..
My prep school could hardly be described as being particularly sophisticated or advanced regarding the arts but at some point I benefited from a projected showing of Renoir's Une Partie de Campagne and the beautiful, romantic, sentimental and sad imagery and story got under my skin and has remained there ever since.
Partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1936) is one of the great unfinished films.
It's an often breathtaking pastoral film, creating a fully-realised rural world a la Tol'able David and Louisiana Story into which to throw our protagonists.Sylvia Bataille is Henriette, a Parisian girl who decamps to the countryside for the weekend with her parents, her grandmother and her fiancé.
But this is 19th century France, and the ties that bind won't slacken just because someone's fallen in love.The film is gentle, entertaining and sometimes very funny, benefiting from superb performances by Bataille, Marken and young romeos Georges D'Arnoux and Jacques B.
Perhaps Renoir, adapting Guy de Maupassant's novel, is making a satiric point about the unredeemable unsuitability of the young couple, or the ineptitude of Parisians cast adrift several miles from the big city, but it's a directorial decision that's never really justified.Still, that's the only gripe about this amazing piece of work, which largely hums with brilliance and ultimately stands shoulder-to-shoulder with La grande illusion as the director's greatest achievement.Trivia note: That's Renoir himself as the restaurateur, Poulain..
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..
Day in the Country, A (1936) **** (out of 4) Incredibly touching and extremely beautiful film from the French master Renoir.
A Parisian father takes his wife, mother-in-law, daughter and future son in law on a trip to the country where they plan to have a picnic.
The film runs a very short 40-minutes but Renoir throws everything into the picture.
The film also features some very beautiful cinematography including a terrific sequence near the end where the river is shown with rain drops hitting it.
All of the performances are great but Sylvia Bataille is the real standout as the daughter who is going to encounter and lose love over the span of a short evening.
It seems Renoir never go to finish the film but to me the running time is perfect and it's amazing what the director does capture and show in the short time..
One such moment is the storm sequence in "Une partie de campagne." I saw this film once, several years ago, and yet the haunting poetry of that scene still sticks in my mind vividly.
Combined with the intense love scene which precedes it, and its contrast to the overall frivolity of the narrative, makes it the most beautiful film of one of film's greatest directors.
This movie is a beautiful looking one and is like a day in the life of of a family on their summer holiday on the countryside, somewhere in early 20th century France.The movie is filled with some unexpected contrasts and metaphors.
It has a summer holiday look and feeling over it, in which the main characters, from the big city, are obviously enjoying the beauty and quietness of the country life.
But perceptions differ, as can be also seen in the final sequence of the movie, in which the events of that one summer day in the country left a big lasting impression on the girl.What Jean Renoir does really well is capturing the right mood and atmosphere of the movie.
Of course the movie gets helped by its country side environments, which gets captured perfectly on camera.Not all of the actors were real experienced professionals, which can be seen back in their performances but overall this shouldn't trouble you to much, since Jean Renoir perfectly knows to tell the story with its images and character behavior, rather than relying completely on the actor's skills.I wouldn't go as far as calling this Renoir's best but it's nevertheless a great, humble, realistic, honest, warm portrayal of life.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
A 40 minute fragment of an unfinished movie which Truffaut describes as a cinematic short story, about a picnic in the country.Renoir movies are always idyllic visually - like beautiful cinematic paintings, but Partie de Campagne is particularly idyllic.
The bottom half of the frame is virtually in the water we're so close to the action.My favourite parts of Renoir movies are when he goes out on location (which he did quite a bit) and shoots wonderful scenes in nature.
I'm not sure that if Renoir continued with this project it would have retained enough interest over a two hour length - most likely its merely the central episode of a movie.
Like Kubrick, Renoir made his movies up from several big, beautiful chunks.
This applies most to Grand Illusion, so perhaps this sequence would never have been intended to supply enough dramatic interest for an entire story, but for lovers of Renoir, here are some of the most beautiful things he ever filmed.
If you've never seen a Renoir film, the first experience is always the best, and it might be spoiling you if you start with this one, but it would be a beautiful introduction to him..
Second, director Renoir himself intended to make a full-length film but only stopped part-way through the project because of time constraints--there was too much rain and he had to wrap up filming!
Although "A Day In The Country" is a lovely, lyrical film I was disappointed to learn that it was never completed.
The daughter (Sylvia Bataille) falls in love with a man (Georges D'Arnoux) at the inn, where they spend the day.This simple film, less than 45 minutes long, is now available thanks to Criterion.
Renoir never finished filming due to weather problems, but producer Pierre Braunberger turned the material into a release in 1946, ten years after it was shot.
Plot: On a day out in the country, a city girl is pursued by two young men.Review: This was a pleasant, short piece, with little moments that almost anyone can relate to.
Though most people know this fact it bears repeating within the context of looking at A Day in the Country, the long-short film (though too short for a feature) that Jean Renoir directed in 1936 and released officially 10 years later, that he had blood-ties to the painter Renoir of the same name.
And so in A Day in the Country, which is simply about two women, a mother and a daughter, who go out to have a picnic and go out on the lake and eat under a cherry tree and meet two men who basically spend their time hitting on them (and before this we see the two men contemplate how to do this), the filmmaker more than any other time I can think of uses the location and actors like a painter would.It may also be because of the time period from the Maupassant story in the mid 19th century, but it's hard for me to shake when watching this how it's kind of like a painting from that time period (or a little after) of Renoir only done here in the flesh.
I saw a lot of deep emotions with these characters and the details that accumulate by the end scene where it cuts ahead years later when things have changed for the daughter it has an impact - she marries another man who we also see here accompanying the two.
There may be a lot of reliance on the music to lift things up with big swells of this or that for scenes, but mostly what makes Day in the Country so appealing is its simplicity and its spirit of gentility.
There are characters who have just mildly varying degrees of sophistication, which may not even be much at all, and so when the mother character is in total delight and exuberation about something, or a character petting a tiny kitten, or how the daughter reacts when being asked by the man she's with if they can go to the shore to 'stretch their legs' (which means something else of course, kissing and getting more intimate), the reactions are totally genuine.This isn't Renoir in satire mode; he's out to use his 40 minutes to bring us to a very pleasant but extraordinary feeling - whether he truly intended to finish this as a longer film or keep it as is is hard to say, as the Renoir of 1960 claims this version is fine the way it is.
This may not mean it has the same rewatchability of a Grand Illusion but that's alright; it's like being along with these characters and experiencing things as pure views: the country IS a nice place to be in, and yet if you want to stay there for good is the question you have to ask yourself.
Wow, this sure is an amazing and epic movie, it is only 40 minutes long but is the best piece of French cinema I have ever seen.
I was also quite surprised at the sexual references, remember, this is an early 20th century movie.Two men from the countryside seduce a French mother and daughter from Paris.It was supposed to be a complete movie but instead, Renoir made it as a short before going to the USA..
Unfortunately, A Day in the Country is an incomplete film that is only approximately forty minutes long.
If things had gone differently, I believe that the film would now be considered Jean Renoir's masterpiece, because within these mere fragments of a work intended to be much larger, one can see a work of genius and beauty.
Although The River is often praised for its stunning imagery, A Day in the Country may just be the most visually appealing of Renoir's work.
Even without context, one cannot help but choke up a little when witnessing such sadness.Dipped in tenderness and humor, A Day in the Country is an elegant work of art that is sadly short in length, but remains just as powerful as films three times as long despite these unfortunate circumstances..
Jean Renoir: a day in the country..
A man, Monsieur Dufour, his wife, Juliette, his daughter, Henriette, her fiancé, Anatole, and the grandmother go the country for some fishing and a picnic.
But maybe she finally had to marry Anatole anyway, for the same reason that Henri feared.The word is that Jean Renoir, who directed this movie, never got to finish it, so maybe that is why we never find out how Rodolphe made out with Juliette.
Adapted from a Guy de Maupassant story, A Day in the Country is a short 40 minutes film is, in fact, just a part of a movie that Director Jean Renoir didn't finish.
For its American distribution, Day in the Country was bundled together with two other short European films -- Joifroi and the controversial The Miracle -- as the portmanteau film The Ways of Love.
Sadly this movie will be more likely seen in film or art school, then at home.
Many people say that Renoir's films mirror his father's art looking at the impeccable riverbank shots in this masterpiece.
A lot of people make a point of calling attention to the fact that "A day in the country" is an unfinished film, cut short by bad weather conditions and a lack of sufficient funds; I feel that these filming disruptions and hastily put together ending, actually contribute more to the film than whatever was originally planned.
While the director took this movie as a chance to show off, the beauty of the French country side, the short length of the film, kept the scenery from overpowering the story line.
This plus the abrupt nature of the films end, really served to show, that the main characters pain at not being able to marry the man she loved, was simply indescribable.
This film was written (adapted from a Guy de Maupassant short story) and directed by Jean Renoir, son of famous painter Auguste, pretty much in the middle of his career and he also played a part in this black-and-white movie.
The 40-minutes may be flawed, but the following is my take on the short's quietly compelling nature.Apparently, moviemaker Renoir was unable to complete the film.
Last week I watched Jean Renoir's 'The Rules of the Game (1939)' for the first time, and, while I quite enjoyed it, I felt rather distanced from the story, as though the film was so preoccupied with snappy characters and dialogue (as in a stage play) that it didn't bother with emotion or atmosphere, the evocation of time and place.
Happily, this wasn't a problem with 'Partie de campagne / A Day in the Country (1936).' Renoir's unfinished adaptation of a short story by Guy de Maupassant gains a wonderful personality through its on-location filming.
However, after Henri (Georges D'Arnoux) and Henriette (Sylvia Bataille) come together for the first time in a reluctant but passionate embrace, the story then jarringly cuts to a years-later epilogue, a wistful conclusion that reflects on events that seemingly never took place.
This is how I feel about 'A Day in the Country.' Everything up until the hasty ending is funny, emotional, glorious, and invigorating, yet we're wrenched from the dream-like clasp of Renoir's hand unexpectedly and disappointingly.
The only reason I saw this film was because it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. It should be said firstly that it is only just under forty minutes because director Jean Renoir cancelled filming, due to incessant rainy days, and they had only two scenes left to complete the film, but the incomplete scenes are filled with captions.
So, anyway it is basically the family of a Parisian shop-owner spending a day in the country, like the title says.
> This short film is, in fact, just a part of a movie that > Jean > Renoir didn't finish.
> This short film is, in fact, just a part of a movie that > Jean > Renoir didn't finish.
At the end of the movie, we > saw > the original finale when the young woman, now marry to > the > old man, came back to the countryside where she once find > true > love.
At the end of the movie, we > saw > the original finale when the young woman, now marry to > the > old man, came back to the countryside where she once find > true > love.
I've been studying cinema in university for more than a year and stumbled across two Jean Renoir films including this one who was particularly painful.It might be my suspension of disbelief being the problem, but i've watched some movies from this era(including Citizen Kane that I loved) and never hated'em with so much passion.
"I assure you, you're making a mistake by not joining me." I was reminded of these prints while watching Jean Renoir's great short film -- it's only 40 minutes long, but every minute is golden -- A Day in the Country.
In it, the Dufour family -- husband, wife, daughter, future son-in-law, and comically deaf grandmother -- find a country inn in a beautiful setting on their day away from the city.
A Day in the Country was in fact never finished -- weather interrupted the shooting and Renoir had to move on to another commitment -- but the existing footage was assembled ten years later under the supervision of the producer, Pierre Braunberger, with two explanatory intertitles, and it stands on its own as a masterwork.