The Movie:

During an interview featured in one of the extras for A Day in the Country, Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner points out how much of an odd choice this wistful and nostalgic ode to the simple pleasures of life was for the director at the time. Renoir shot A Day in the Country, adapted from a short story by Guy de Maupassant, in the middle of a career and personal life that was dedicated to serious sociopolitical issues, focused on social equality and the rights of the working class.

Perhaps Renoir wanted to take a break from the stress of politics and decided to create a simple film about a Parisian family's day out in the country as a way of reminding himself about the persistent beauty of nature even during tumultuous times. There isn't much of a story here, apart from two locals, the romantic Henri (Georges D'Arnoux) and the wily ladies' man Rodolphe (Jacques B. Brunius), trying to court the women of a Parisian family visiting the countryside in 1860. The women are the boisterous and sexually frustrated mother Madame Dufour (Jane Marken) and her idealist daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille).

Bataille's heartfelt performance becomes the focal point of the short, as her character successfully represents the innocence of youth and the reflective awe such a young age feels about nature. The most memorable scene comes early on, as Henriette confides in her mother about how overwhelmed she feels around such beauty. Later on, when Henri takes Henriette on a skiff ride along the river, she enjoys the silence of the water. Henri, who grew up around the lake all of his life, responds by complaining about the noise the flies make. Even during such a simple story, Renoir manages to skillfully examine the cultural differences between the working class and the rich, a theme he would skewer masterfully in The Rules of the Game three years later.

While directing A Day in the Country, which Renoir wanted to turn into a part of a possible omnibus of short films based on de Maupassant short stories, Renoir was called in to finish shooting The Lower Depths and had to abandon this little pet project. In 1946, the film was finished as well as it could have been with the available footage and without the supervision of Renoir, since he was already living in America at the time. Knowing more about Renoir's original intent for the film, this final version comes very close to a finished work. There are only a couple of title cards at the end, explaining what happened during some brief scenes. Otherwise, the work is pretty much complete.

Renoir fills his film with long, pondering shots of nature almost like a precursor to Terence Malick. The film's light tone is almost intoxicating. There's only a single issue that gets in the way of Renoir's simple approach, and that is the unnecessary epilogue. With his finale, Renoir tries to capture the traces of a tragic love story, but since we didn't feel much of a connection between the two characters beyond a fling, the whole ending feels a bit too melodramatic and atonal.

The Blu-Ray:

Video:

As usual, Criterion doesn't disappoint as they present a near-perfect HD transfer to another one of their releases. The meticulous 2K restoration of A Day in the Country appears in a 1080p encode in 1:37:1 academy ratio. The healthy amount of contrast and grain gives this gorgeous looking black-and-white classic as much of a film-like look as possible. On the other hand, the lack of scratches and dirt on the restoration makes Renoir's relatively unknown work look as clean as it probably ever did.

Audio:

I'll take one of Criterion's DTS-HD 1.0 mono presentations over a surround remix any day. A Day in the Country's 1.0 transfer doesn't provide an exception to that rule, as enough depth and clarity comes out of only the center channel to whisk us into late 19^th century French countryside. The dialogue sounds tinny, which is understandable since Renoir recorded live audio on location, giving the film the desired natural feel, and the technology didn't allow for better sound recording at the time.

Extras:

On the surface, it's hard to justify spending the kind of funds usually reserved for Criterion's full-length features on a 41-minute short, but this is one of those rare cases where the extensive amount of extras might provide a better reason for a purchase than the feature itself. Fortunately, almost two hours of footage from the film's shoot became available in the early 90s, allowing Renoir fans to gain front-row access to his methods and directorial approach. Criterion's Blu-Ray release of A Day in the Country is worth buying as a compact film class on Renoir with the added bonus of the short itself, rather than the other way around.

Introduction by Jean Renoir: This 5-minute introduction, filmed in 1962, has the director face the audience and defend plagiarism. That sounds weird, I know, but hear him out. Renoir's similar introduction on Criterion's release of Rules of the Game was almost the best reason to buy that disc, and this intro shows a similar honesty and warmth from the legendary director.

The Road to A Day in the Country: Aforementioned Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner gives a compact class on Renoir and the filming process of A Day in the Country in this excellent 20-minute featurette.

Renoir at Work: A visual essay on the film's production by Faulkner, which utilizes outtakes from the film.

Un Tournage a la Champagne: Ninety minutes of outtakes from the film's production provides die-hard fans with almost unlimited access to Renoir's methods. This is the piece de resistance of this disc.

Interview with Pierre Braunberger: The film's producer gives his candid views on Renoir in this short 1979 interview.

Screen Tests: Five minutes of screen test footage from the film. For the biggest fans only, since we're really going in deep with this one.

Final Thoughts:

Whimsical and light yet honest and heartfelt, A Day in the Country is a slightly uneven yet charming effort from a director who's known for his more pessimistic work. The disc gets a recommendation at full price on the wide range of extras alone.

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com