A country party

Une partie de campagne (A Field Trip, 1936) is a French medium-length film directed by Jean Renoir, based on the story of Guy de Maupassant, with which Renoir pays homage to his father, the impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir. His paintings are evoked in the film, which causes a dialectical reflection on cinema-painting relationships and their operations of meaning to come together. The film stars Sylvia Bataille, Georges Darnoux and Jane Marken.

Plot

The action takes place on a Sunday in August 1860. Mr. Dufour (André Gabriello) has decided to spend the holiday on the banks of the river with his family and the clerk Anatole (Paul Temps), fiancé of his daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille). In a hostel they meet the rascals Henri (Georges D & # 39; Arnoux) and Rodolphe (Jacques B. Brunius), who insistently look at Henriette and her attractive mother. Later, the Dofours eat under the shade of a cherry tree. While the husband and the clerk take a nap, the rascals invite the mother and daughter to sail a boat on the river. On a shore, Rodolphe seduces Mrs. Dofour (Jane Marken), and Henri does the same with Henriette.

Artistic and historical context

In the summer of 1936, forced by circumstances that were never clarified, Jean Renoir was unable to finish his film. Ten years later, the editor Marguerite Houllé contributed some sequences that were believed to be lost. She thus made a medium-length film, more or less half of the film initially designed by Renoir.Although the film was not finished, its essence could still be identified, and above all its ability to recreate the impressionist paintings of her father Pierre-Auguste Renoir. As an example of this, the scene of Henriette standing on a swing is inspired by the painting La balançoire (1876). In fact, Renoir manages to achieve the great desire of the impressionists: he manages to perfectly capture the transience of time and life.

The balançoire, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Having young Jacques Becker and Luchino Visconti as assistant directors, the French director sublimates foresight and simplicity to devise a lyrical, sensual and delicious outing to the countryside. As an allegory of life and with a festive and bittersweet tone of comedy, Une partie de campagne becomes a suggestive, fascinating and extraordinary film.

Fun facts

• The boy who goes fishing from the bridge at the beginning of the film is Jean Renoir's son.
• Une partie de campagne is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (1001 films to be seen before death) edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
• The famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson worked in the film (with 28 years) as assistant to director Jean Renoir.
• Although it was shot in the summer of 1936, it was premiered ten years later and with a duration not exceeding forty minutes.