Renoir’s version of vanity publishing, this film was a vehicle to promote the less than stellar talents of his wife Catherine Hessling. Basically, it’s a hoary old melodrama of an innocent young girl sexually menaced by an array of male nasties, including her own uncle. The expressionistic dream/nightmare sequence was quite striking in its day but seems rather derivative and a distraction from the strengths of the film – the lyrical depiction of the natural setting along a quintessentially Renoirian river. (One character even ends up floating, Boudu-like, down the river – but to very different effect.)
by Ian Johnston | Source: Lions Gate DVD
20 Jun 2007 2:11 PM | Submit Comment