A Day in the Country (1946) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★

  All of life’s pleasures.

• Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 1

  very beautiful little film about impermanence. the way renoir eases you into a light sex comedy before time and nature seems to be literally bent by a sudden expression of real love is very effectively done; the combination of the images of the rain disturbing the countryside and bataille's stare as she realizes the moment will be over just as soon as the rain is is very moving. but what happened to the cat, jean? the people need to know

• Review by Peter Labuza ★★★★★ 3

  "To say Renoir captures action is to say his cinema is one of gestures, movement, emotions, smiles, tears, and kisses. While typically known for a use of deep focus, his formal patterns are more elusive than such a description could suggest. He rarely repeats shots and refuses to establish space, but in lieu of these filmic patterns he captures something akin to contemporary realism. This occurs both in the film’s visual sense of the world around them — trees move their limbs, the air can feel a bit hazy — and the fact that Renoir’s characters are hardly saints. Perhaps it’s not a shock that the two fishermen first announce themselves as archetypes (the hopeless romantic and the philanderer) only…

• Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★★

  The camera also acts

• Review by ˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 2

  well, you see, i feel a tremendous sort of tenderness... for the grass, the water, the trees. a vague sort of yearning. it's like a catch in the throat, it almost makes me want to cry.

• Review by luke? ★★★ 2

  Me during the first few minutes: Alright I feel like I can vibe with th-

  The male gaze: Ayyyyyy whats good

• Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★

  Only the explanatory pre-credits notification of the film's incomplete shooting and a few filler text notes to paper over unfilmed scenes would give any indication that this is anything but one of the most perfect, complete shorts ever made. Renoir slides in and out of subjective romantic idyll and clear-eyed objective distance so easily it's easy to initially miss both the basic fact of the transitions and the mounting emotional resonance of them. But as the petit-bourgeois family settles into their day trip and two locals begin to woo the women among them, the relaxed tone starts to become more and more impressionistic until a moment of fleeting romance (or is it sexual impropriety? Or both?) prompts a moment of inner turmoil and confusion in a young woman that manifests as nature itself shivering and sobbing around her. Time moves years in a pan of the camera, but a final, fated encounter proves that memories remain.

• Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★

  A delightful emphasis on dialogue and character interactions is at the heart of this narrative which illustrates a relationship along the banks of the Seine during an isolated summer afternoon. It's written and directed by Jean Renoir, who shows real brilliance in the way that he develops the film and demonstrates that he supports honesty above all else by capturing the presence of his actors rather than have them perform; alongside with some mid-nineteenth-century idiosyncrasies and sexual frankness. There are moments of great elegance in A Day in the Country, together with some satisfying humanity.

• Review by Bruno Andrade ★★★★★

  Um milagre de equilíbrio. O caráter provisório de tudo que está no filme (filmagem inacabada, montagem aproximativa, o próprio tema do passeio de fim de semana pelo campo, o tempo que passa, as orquestrações da natureza, as personagens que hesitam) acentua ainda mais o determinismo e o fatalismo de tudo que é o filme (o tempo que passou, o que a natureza orquestrou, os segundos decisivos entre Sylvia Bataille e Georges D'Arnoux no final).

• Review by Deckk ★★★

  The Parisian monsieur Dufour and his family spend a day of relaxation out in the country. Two young men try to court Dufour’s daughter and wife while he’s off fishing with his future son-in-law. A Day in the Country is a barely forty minutes ‘featurette’ created from material shot by Jean Renoir that was intended for a feature-length film that never got finished (due to weather problems apparently). And that’s quite a shame, because what’s there lures you in — way better than monsieur Dufour lures those fish — and leaves you begging for more by the time the final title card suddenly gets slapped onto the screen. The accomplished setup and character work (I’m impressed by how well Renoir…

• Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½

  "Some people never have any luck.
  All at once, as though a thick veil had
  been whisked aside, he clearly saw the
  wretchedness―the bottomless, monotonous
  wretchedness―of his existence. The
  wretchedness which had been, which was,
  and which was yet to come. His last days
  indistinguishable from the first, with nothing
  ahead of him or behind him or around him,
  nothing in his heart, nothing anywhere."
  - Guy de Maupassant,
  A Day in the Country
  and Other Stories

• Review by Double_Dubs ★★★★½ 6

  (This review includes several brief analyses and assessments of various events scattered throughout this film, so read at your own discretion.)

  When I first watched Jean Renoir’s Partie de Campagne, its profound beauty left me speechless and my only and most adamant complaint was the brisk running time of 40 minutes. Upon hearing that Renoir never got to finish this film, I insisted that there was a desperate need for more footage, scenes, story, have what you will. Rewatching it and getting to fall in love all over again, I became confused at my original reaction. The film’s fine. There’s indeed something here and there that could be further explored but the same case can be made for every film…