A Day in the Country
Partie de campagne (; English: A Day in the Country) is a French featurette that was written and directed by Jean Renoir in 1936, but not edited and released until 1946. It is based on the short story "Une partie de campagne" (1881) by Guy de Maupassant, who was a friend of Renoir's father, the renowned painter Auguste Renoir. The film chronicles a love affair over a single summer afternoon in 1860 along the banks of the Seine.
Plot
One Sunday in 1860, Monsieur Dufour, a shop-owner from Paris, takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at Poulain's roadside restaurant, two young men there, Henri and Rodolphe, take an interest in Dufour's wife and daughter, Henriette. They discuss how they can get alone with the women, and decide to offer to take them out on the river in their skiffs, while distracting Dufour and his shop assistant and future son-in-law, Anatole, by lending them fishing poles. Although the plan was for Rodolphe to woo Henriette, leaving her mother for Henri, Henri changes his mind and puts Henriette in his skiff. Rodolphe good-naturedly settles for Madame Dufour.
More details
| author | Jean Renoir |
|---|---|
| director | Jean Renoir |
| editor | Marguerite Renoir |
| events | fleeting relationship |
| genre | drama |
| keywords | fishing pole river seclude skiff sleep |
| musicBy | Joseph Kosma |
| producer | Pierre Braunberger |
| productionCompany | Pantheon Productions |
| publisher | Joseph Burstyn |
| theme | noir romantic drama short |