Originally released as a motion picture in 1939. Marcel Dalio, Mila Parely, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain.
Contents:
Disc One. High-definition digital restoration -- Introduction to the film by director Jean Renoir -- Audio commentary written by the film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich -- Comparison of the film's two endings -- Selected scene analysis by Renoir historian Chris Faulkner -- Disc Two. Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La règle et l'exception (1966), a French television program by filmmaker Jacques Rivette -- Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993 BBC documentry by film critic David Thompson -- Video essay about the film's production, release, and 1959 reconstruction -- Interview with film critic Oliver Curchod -- Interview from a 1965 episode of the French television series Les écrans de la ville in which Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand discuss their reconstruction and rerelease of the film -- Interviews with set designer Max Douy; Renoir's son, Alain; and actress Mila Parély.
Summary:
A critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners, in which a weekend at a marquis's countryside chateau lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haute bourgeois acquaintances. The film was subjected to cuts after premiere audiences rejected it in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II and reconstructed in 1959, which is the version presented here.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.