Partie de campagne


Partie de campagne is a 1946 French featurette written and directed by Jean Renoir. It was released as A Day in the Country in the United States. The film is based on the short story "Une partie de campagne" by Guy de Maupassant, who was a friend of Renoir's father, the renowned painter Auguste Renoir. It chronicles a love affair over a single summer afternoon in 1860 along the banks of the Seine.
Renoir never finished filming due to weather problems, but producer Pierre Braunberger turned the material into a release in 1946, ten years after it was shot. Joseph Burstyn released the film in the U.S. in 1950.

Plot

Monsieur Dufour, a shop-owner from Paris, takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at the roadside restaurant of Poulain, two young men there, Henri and Rodolphe, take an interest in Dufour's daughter Henriette and wife Madame Dufour. They scheme to get the two women off alone with them. They offer to row them along the river in their skiffs, while they divert Dufour and his shop assistant and future son-in-law, Anatole, by lending them some fishing poles. Though Rodolphe had arranged beforehand to take Henriette, Henri maneuvers it so that she gets into his skiff. Rodolphe then good-naturedly settles for Madame Dufour.
As Henri rows, Henriette expresses her enthusiasm for the countryside. Henri suggests that she could come visit again, on her own, by train if necessary, and offers to meet her. Henriette says that her father would never permit it.
Henri rows to a secluded spot on the riverbank which he refers to as his "private office". Henriette initially resists his amorous advances, but stops struggling after a moment.
A rainstorm that has been threatening all afternoon arrives, but the party's return to the inn is not depicted.
Title cards indicate that years have passed and that Henriette has married Anatole. One day, they end up at the place where Henri seduced Henriette. While Anatole dozes, his wife takes a walk, and encounters Henri. With tears in her eyes, she reminisces about their brief time together. Then, when Anatole wakes up, Henri hides until they leave.

Cast

Future leading directors Jacques Becker and Luchino Visconti worked as Renoir's assistant directors. 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.