VERSE
Eaton, Charles Edward
alternative to the life they live, rather than a grotesque an auteur in the true sense of the term, and the acts put complement to it, the effect is the same: they cannot on in his little...
...An old man (Fernand Sar- Something that grew from her was holding her dou) has a young wife who loves him dearly, but who To earth, bending her back in agony...
...Instead they get up and dance in of a single man...
...alternative to the life they live, rather than a grotesque an auteur in the true sense of the term, and the acts put complement to it, the effect is the same: they cannot on in his little theater are all recognizable as the work eat their meal either...
...Everything about Renoir's treatment here is designed But it is important to be aware of the variety in to enhance our sense that this is a parable rather than Renoir's variety theater because much of his late career a slice of real life...
...simply to forgive his betrayers because he loves them But the man on the shore carries the sword, too much to do otherwise...
...dying out...
...When she sat on it, it took hold in soil If the first act of Renoir's little theater is a fable, the Of buttocks, pulling back her heavy face last is a mere anecdote, just the sort of tale that might Like an exposed bulb, the thick roots spreading...
...Eventually the old A powerful gesture but alienatingfellow discovers the truth, quite by accident, and the What can one do with the follicular bulb...
...Here Renoir stands beside the model of a proscen- COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR...
...Directors of such versatility are of course they dance...
...12 July 1974: 380...
...What the optical effect suggests this time is some continuity between the play and the world THE WOMAN WHO COULD SIT beyond the stage...
...He shoots his film on location Moves, a great, coiled, wondrous, excreted thing: rather than on sets, and he puts no particular construc- One can smother, plunge, almost be cut downtion on his plot...
...life, are accommodating rather than absolute...
...Although the film's middle segment, a the snow along the bank of the Seine where they are satire on modern conveniences, is less sentimental then encamped...
...Moreover, an optical effect that is very fancy, and ist...
...The old She flicks the moment and expertly dives, man brushes aside such romantically self-destructive Carrying with her her own wide pool of hair gestures, however...
...This revives their fantasies so completely that the other two, all three segments are pretty warm-bloodthey lie down to sleep without having touched their ed...
...Renoir personally participates in the ON HER HAIR game of the drama this time and identifies with the characters...
...The refreshing thing about Le Petit Theatre being made by the optical effect this time is very differ- de Jean Renoir is that it has always been so commodious...
...They all demonstrate that self-contentment and meal at all, and in the morning they are found dead abiding humanity which has pervaded Renoir's work with looks of contentment on their faces...
...since World War II...
...doctor is so guilty he tries to challenge his friend to a duel which he intends to let the friend win...
...This is not to It was a sighing stroke, beyond arm's length...
...As well as the skill of coming up for air, After some anguished deliberation, he has decided One white hand rising like the Lady of the Lake...
...Since the characters this time are people, not types, Renoir's treatment is a com- It hangs, the head's own static waterfall, pletely naturalistic one...
...actually be drawn from life...
...say we wouldn't have guessed the stories making up She gathered up enough for daffodils, this film were all directed by the same hand...
...Renoir is Making the yellow martyr bide its time...
...twinkling lights embedded in a backdrop to suggest the Like Howard Hawks in this country, Renoir is a pluralcity...
...They have no place in his world...
...He has directed crime melodrama and comedy of fanciful, has a crucial role in this little morality play manners, screwball comedy and social protest, social when the two old lovers' fantasies are suddenly pro- satire and musicals, contemporary think films and jected onto the bleak stone embankment along which costume epics...
...I saw the woman, a siren in the sun, The real significance of this vignette lies in the way Combing through the thrill of expectations...
...yields to her passion for his best friend, a doctor, also Standing up was a wrenching upheaval, young, with whom she has an affair...
...The emotions here, truer to Modern, theatrical, nonlegendary...
...The sets are obviously all just that has also been a reaction against the postwar trends and -sets with soap-flake snow, papier-machd walls and schools in filmmaking which he considers monomaniacal...
...well as get him into trouble...
...ium stage he has used to introduce each of the three acts presented, and onto the stage he rolls a tiny marble 00000000000000 which suddenly becomes, in mid-flight, a Bocci ball rolling along the ground in the South-of-France village where CHARLES EDWARD EATON the play is set...
...At issue He waits when she dries her slick hair in ropes are man's weaknesses, and how they may save him as To cut it like rushes they can lie in...
...it differentiates itself from the first one...
...But in their prime they were men who alThe film's third section begins with a similar match- ways suited their treatment to the script, as Renoir ing cut from one background to another, but the point does here...
Vol. 100 • July 1974 • No. 16
