Partie de Campagne (1936)

France 40m, B&W
Director: Jean Renoir; Cast: Sylvia Bataille, Georges D’Arnoux, Jane Marken, André Gabriello, Jacques B. Brunius, Paul Temps

Original filming for “A Day in the Country” was undertaken by Renoir in 1936, but never completed. A decade later, the footage was assembled by Pierre Braunberger and subsequently released as a short film. A period piece, the story is about a brief romantic interlude during a summer afternoon in 1860 between Henriette, a Parisian vacationer and a local villager Henri. Returning to the area years later with her husband, she unexpectedly meets Henri and tearfully reminisces about their afternoon. The film’s realistic beauty is an expressive portrait of a day in the life of ordinary people and is a brilliant, albeit incomplete piece film making (Klaus Ming February 2013).