Renoir’s portrayal of a weekend house party in the country is, in effect, the portrayal of a society in crisis, a social world in which there are rules but no values. On the surface the film is a comedy of manners based on the tradition of 18th century French theatre. Its richness lies in the contrast between ambiguity and clarity, the elaborate parallelisms between groups and specific characters and a pathbreaking melange of stylistic techniques. Renoir ironically exposes the moral bankruptcy of this world while remaining consistent with the model of classical theatre in his deployment of closure. The film’s influence lies in Renoir’s modernism. In portraying life-as-flux he juxtaposes what in his hands are formal devices for openness (mobile camera, depth of field, use of off-screen space) with the closure of classical narrative implied by, for example, shot-counter-shot editing. Also available on VHS and LD.
Credits: Director, Jean Renoir ; producer, Claude Renoir ; photography, Jean Bachelet ; writers, Jean Renoir, Carl Koch ; music, Joseph Kosma, Roger Desormieres.
Cast: Marcel Dalio, Roland Toutain, Nora Gregor, Jean Renoir.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
F000061
Languages
English
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)