It's unforgivable that circumstances met against this little gem being explored to its fullest - I'm certain the finished product would have been an unquestionable masterpiece. Still, what's here is marvelous, and the exquisite cinematography is left only slightly bothered from a bit of patchy editing.

most of the things I dislike about French

A very enjoyable and lively little film, works very well despite the missing part.

If this is unfinished then who needs finished films? It is pretty darn close to perfection. Look what cinema can do, in just 40 minutes, with 1936 production standards. Look at the simplicity with which bliss and sorrow replace one another like sudden changes of weather. And should it leave you hungry for another great Maupassant adaptation, continue on to Ophüls' Le Plaisir.

This unfinished film is naturally a little disjointed towards the end, but the set up is perfect: beautiful, touching, and funny. It could have been a masterpiece.

#165

A remarkably beautiful and very moving piece of filmmaking. I particularly loved the little poetic thoughts the daughter would say, and the swing scene is amazing (and I imagine almost certainly influenced Satyajit Ray's equally brilliant swing scene in Charulata). If I hadn't been told that the film wasn't completed then I'd never have realised it because few films feel so complete.

Although it's often very silly, it's still scathingly funny with heavy doses of charm and sentiment mixed in. May have been one of Renoir's best had it been completed.

Cute, and once again Renoir excels in his acting duties.

A bittersweet short. Renoir's disdain for the bourgeois is not as biting as Le Regle du Jeu, but it's definitely there, especially in the beginning. The film gradually changes direction and becomes more of a fable about fleeting happiness and lost opportunities. The photography is gorgeous -- everything bathed in bright sunlight, some amazing footage of the daughter on a swing, and magnificent nature shots, particularly during a rainstorm.

Distinctly elegant.

# 147

A charming movie with brilliant satire and beautiful memorable photography.

170

153

An unfinished film which was much admired for its local colour, like an impressionist picture come to life.

The inspirations for Jean Renoir's thirty-some-minute featurette sit in high places: first, the bleak and cold naturalism of Maupassant, and second, the dappled lighting effects of the Impressionist painters. In Renoir's hands, however, a Maupassant gem, whose outstanding trait is hardness, turns into Silly Putty. Renoir likes softness, and he likes bounce.