A Day in the Country (1936)

[tama]

A Day in the Country Blu-ray

This bittersweet work from Jean Renoir, based on a story by Guy de Maupassant, is a tenderly comic idyll about a city family's picnic in the French countryside and the romancing of the mother and grown daughter by two local men. Conceived as part of a larger project that was never completed, shot in 1936, and released ten years later, the warmly humanist vignette A Day in the Country ranks among Renoir's most lyrical films, with a love for nature imbuing its every beautiful frame.

Special Features:

New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Introduction by director Jean Renoir from 1962
New interview with Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner about the film's production
New video essay by Faulkner on Renoir's methods
Un tournage à la campagne, an 89-minute 1994 compilation of outtakes from the film
Interview with producer Pierre Braunberger from 1979
Screen tests
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez

[RiFiFi1955]

Renoir! Definitely interested in checking this out.

[javi92]

This is a true delight! If I were somehow forced to choose, it would be in my top five films I've ever seen. Absolutely wonderful.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by javi92

This is a true delight! If I were somehow forced to choose, it would be in my top five films I've ever seen. Absolutely wonderful.

I haven't seen it, but I'm interested enough to pick it up at release. A nice surprise announcement.

[pro-bassoonist]

Packaging photos. Our review will be up shortly







Pro-B

[The Great Owl]

This thread could use some love, so I'm double-posting my thoughts from the Criterion thread.



The 1936 film, A Day in the Country, is oft-discussed for being an unfinished work by Jean Renoir, due to the fact that he had to leave the production for another commitment, but I personally found nothing lacking in this 41-minute feature, and it comes across as a complete story on its own terms. Astute fans of Renoir may be able to pick out the scenes that were helmed by assistant director Jacques Becker in Renoir's absence, but everything comes together quite well.

This film, which is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, is, on the surface, a simple tale about a brief afternoon love affair that happens when a Parisian shop owner takes his family for an outing in the countryside by the banks of the Seine. As the daughter, played by the unbelievably gorgeous Sylvia Bataille, and her mother are spotted and approached by two working class men who plan to seduce them, the narrative plays out in an oddly comical way that might remind contemporary viewers of the cheesy "pickup artist technique" videos on YouTube and elsewhere. Ultimately, though, the story achieves a surprisingly touching and resonant emotional conclusion.

Renoir's talent for visual storytelling and subtle body language cues is on full display here, and the joy of A Day in the Country can be found in observing how quickly the viewer understands the characters despite having only a short time to become acquainted with them. The use of camera angles and framing, especially during an early scene as the two potential suitors watch through a window while the daughter enjoys a swing and during an intimate sequence late the film, is remarkable filmmaking, pure and simple. Nature is a character in itself throughout the film, and the use of nature can be appreciated both as Renoir's tribute to his renowned painter father, and as a possible influence for later directors like Terrence Malick.

I am impressed by the fact that A Day in the Country does not seem "homeworky" in the slightest, and by how fast-paced the movie is even considering its abbreviated run time. The film works a lot of material into a short time, even managing to familiarize us with the tensions between the wealthy and the lower class, in a seemingly effortless way, and there is an intuitive ease to the way that the story travels from light comedy to a melancholic "all that could have been" ending. I read the Maupassant story online after watching the film, but I prefer how the movie conveys everything that we need to know by the use of visual markers.

The idea of paying full price for a Criterion Blu-ray of a 41-minute movie is a tough sell, of course, but I have no trouble recommending the disc, especially to those who are interested seeing Renoir's directing in action during the feature-length supplement, Un Tournage a la Champagne, a collection of outtakes from the film's production. Renoir historian Christopher Faulkner also provides a thorough and entertaining guide to the film and its place in the director's history in the supplement, The Road to A Day in the Country. The 2K restoration of A Day in the Country looks incredible on this Blu-ray and the audio quality is spot-on.