Day in the Country, A / Partie de Campagne (1936)

Day in the Country, A / Partie de Campagne (1936)

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“You men are all the same.”

Synopsis:
While spending the day in the countryside, an engaged young Parisian woman (Sylvia Bataille) and her mother (Jane Marken) are wooed by a pair of local workers (Georges D’Arnoux and Jacques Borel).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Cross-Class Romance
  • French Films
  • Jean Renoir Films
  • Star-Crossed Lovers

Review:
Jean Renoir’s cinematic gem (based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant) effectively conveys a world of innocence and loss within a span of only forty minutes. While not much happens within the narrative — a family goes to the country for the day; a young woman engaged to an insipid clerk (Paul Temps) develops a powerful yet hopeless crush on a man from a different social class — Renoir manages to use these simple elements to show how prescribed our lives are, and how escaping from our normal existence for even a day can show us what we may be missing, but ultimately can’t have.

Because Henriette’s mother is also (happily) wooed on this fateful day, Renoir is able to skillfully present a lifetime conflated into one afternoon: while Henriette is young, emotional, and naive, the older Juliette sees her “fling” as a welcome (if temporary) break from her bourgeois existence; indeed, she considers it a game to try to cuckold her boring husband for the afternoon, keeping him busy with the faux-machismo of fishing while she pursues headier activities with a “real” man. In the end, however, life goes on as it inevitably will: the family returns to Paris; Henriette marries her clerk; and Rodolphe (D’Arnoux) is left behind as a mere memory of an alternate (yet ultimately impossible) existence.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Sylvia Bataille as Henriette
  • The touching interactions between Henriette and her older, wiser mother
  • Jacques Borel as the scheming womanizer who convinces his friend to join him in the seduction
  • Effective metaphorical use of a calm, then teeming, river
  • Beautiful cinematography, showcasing pastoral existence in the countryside

Must See?
Yes. This cinematic morsel is sure to be of interest to film fanatics.

Categories

  • Important Director

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

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One thought on “Day in the Country, A / Partie de Campagne (1936)”

  1. First viewing. Not must-see – though it will no doubt be of interest to those with a liking for classic French cinema.

    Personally, its charm is somewhat lost on me (though I appreciate the finer point brought out in the assessment). I get that it’s something of a meditation on flirtation and passion among the social classes but it didn’t engage me much.

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