The fact that it was unfinished, due to weather problems, and, more than likely, Renoir's eventual lack of interest in the project, left the film with a large gap in the middle of the narrative. Strangely, the abrupt, sentient end adds to the film's sadness. Love is never truly explained, time goes by strangely, and blips and omissions become our greatest memories.

Even unfinished, with one of the loveliest time lapse sequences ever (it's as easy to see the rain as the world crying as it is to see the river itself as time ebbing away), the film's forever a marvel.

December Project film 95. (Nearly there!)

Mostly a light, fluffy, sweet little souffle about picnics and flirting with locals on a trip to the countryside. (And considering that the female characters are already engaged or married to others, it's surprisingly carefree and forward flirting, even more so for the time of its making and certainly for the time of its setting. But then this is France. ;) )
After such frothiness, the pain of the ending took me aback.

This is an unfinished film, so it's nice that the ending survived at all to give some more shape to it. Perhaps it's an insight into Jean Renoir's methods: he had filmed the first half an hour or so, and the end.

Jean Renoir's A Day in the Country, compiled and edited from footage of a movie Renoir never quite completed, is a surprisingly powerful, moving short that tells a bittersweet love story that is brief but beautiful. Only forty minutes long, this is a film you don't want to miss. Delightful.

Perhaps the greatest unfinished film of all time, Jean Renoir's Partie de Campagne follows the Dufour family who are spending a day in the country. Unbeknownst to Monsieur Dufour, while he's fishing with his daughter's fiancee, his daughter and wife are spending their time with two strange men. Beautifully shot, even in its unfinished state Renoir's symbolic day in the country is one of cinema's most powerful statements on the impermanence of human nature.

Short film which established a tone of nostalgia and whimsicalness that made me want to go out into the country and roll around in the grass for a few hours. But plot wise this is weak, and I call bullshit on the "love story" here, which is basically romanticised rape - the film is pretty deplorable for that. Can't see this film being great even if it was finished, but it's technically accomplished and has a certain poetry to some of the sequences of images, but again characters and plot that, while it's unfair to say so considering the state of the film, are too underdeveloped.

Lovely 40 min Renoir short.

The fact that it was unfinished, due to weather problems, and, more than likely, Renoir's eventual lack of interest in the project, left the film with a large gap in the middle of the narrative. Strangely, the abrupt, sentient end adds to the film's sadness. Love is never truly explained, time goes by strangely, and blips and omissions become our greatest memories.

It's a shame this movie was never finished. It was tough to feel for the ending when so much of the scenes were missing beforehand.

A truly splendid yet engaging romantic film from Jean Renoir that was meant to be a feature length film but what was finally presented is still a gorgeous love story.

Even unfinished, with one of the loveliest time lapse sequences ever (it's as easy to see the rain as the world crying as it is to see the river itself as time ebbing away), the film's forever a marvel.

70

Is she sad over rape or a love that could never be because of class restrictions? We may never know.

December Project film 95. (Nearly there!)

Mostly a light, fluffy, sweet little souffle about picnics and flirting with locals on a trip to the countryside. (And considering that the female characters are already engaged or married to others, it's surprisingly carefree and forward flirting, even more so for the time of its making and certainly for the time of its setting. But then this is France. ;) )
After such frothiness, the pain of the ending took me aback.

This is an unfinished film, so it's nice that the ending survived at all to give some more shape to it. Perhaps it's an insight into Jean Renoir's methods: he had filmed the first half an hour or so, and the end.