A Day in the Country (1946)

Interesting facts

Partie de campagne 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 summer afternoon in 1860, along the banks of the Seine.

Production and release

Future leading directors Jacques Becker and Luchino Visconti worked on the film as Renoir's assistant director and set dresser, respectively. The film was shot in July, soon after France had elected the Popular Front government, and employers had negotiated the Matignon agreement, providing wage increases, 40-hour weeks, trade union rights, paid holidays, and improved social services.

Renoir never finished production on the film due to weather problems, but, ten years later, Marguerite Renoir (a film editor and Renoir's partner at the time of filming) and her sister Marinette Cadix edited the material that was shot, and producer Pierre Braunberger released Partie de campagne in 1946. Joseph Burstyn released the film in the U.S. in 1950 as part of the anthology The Ways of Love.

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