#76: A Day in the Country
Part of the Top 150 Films series
A shop-owner takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at a roadside restaurant, two young men there take an interest in the daughter and wife, and scheme to get the women off alone with them. They offer to row them along the river in their skiffs, while they divert the men by lending them some fishing poles. A brief tussle about partnerships ends amicably. Loves form, break apart, and come together years later. And that’s it. A Day in the Country is a Renoir film distilled down to its purest elements: immense humanism, delectable shots, and consummate editing. Though technically an ‘unfinished’ film, and only running for 40 minutes in total, A Day in the Country elegantly crams a lifetime worth of emotion into a breezy package. The final product is anything but light, but it’s a joy to watch nonetheless.
