Given that Jean Renoir's father was the great Impressionist painter Pierre-August Renoir it's not surprising that his film Partie de Campagne so lovingly captures the atmosphere of a hot summer's day in the French countryside. Adapted from a short story by the great Guy de Maupassant, like many films about the summer this charts a growing love affair, played out beside the gently flowing waters of the river Seine. Flirtatious and amorous advances play out as the summer day progresses, as two men try to charm the beautiful young woman Henriette (Sylvia Battaille). The scene is revisited years later, and the optimism of youth is replaced with the harsher realities of compromised lives and missed opportunities. Partie De Campagne almost didn't see the light of day and Renoir cut the filming short on account of bad weather and a "creative block", but fortunately his producer took up the reins and completed the project for him. The result is one of the most beautiful French movies ever made.
