Written by Sara Alnashi
Jean Renoir
Renoir’s Adaptation of Maupassant
Partie de campagne is a 1936 French featurette written and directed by Jean Renoir. At just 41 minutes, the film was never fully completed—bad weather and Renoir’s involvement in other projects halted production. It was finally released posthumously in 1946, with two title cards added to cover the missing footage. In the U.S., it was released as A Day in the Country. The film is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, a friend of Renoir’s father, the renowned painter Auguste Renoir. The narrative captures a love affair over a single summer afternoon in 1860, set along the banks of the Seine, and touches on love, seduction, and disillusionment.
Renoir’s adaptation remains remarkably faithful. Deeply personal, the film is inspired by both Maupassant’s writing and Auguste Renoir’s paintings, many of which depict Parisians enjoying leisure in outdoor settings. Works like Luncheon of the Boating Party (figure 1.) and Oarsmen at Chatou clearly (figure 2.) echo the mood and environment of the film.
Through dialogue and visual storytelling, Renoir animates Maupassant’s characters and expands the emotional terrain. Robert M. Webster notes in “Renoir’s Une Partie de Campagne” that while Maupassant provides the narrative skeleton, Renoir fills it with form and emotional structure. In doing so, Renoir not only honors but enhances Impressionist themes.
Figure 1. Auguste Renoir. Luncheon of the Boating Party, Bougival. 1881. Oil on canvas, 51 x 68” The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Figure 2. Pierre Auguste Renoir. Oarsmen at Chatou. 1879. Oil on canvas. National Art Gallery, Washington DC.
Impressionism in Film
Impressionism is characterized by:
- Short, visible brush strokes conveying the fleeting “impression” of a moment;
- Scenes that feel briefly glimpsed, often inspired by memory;
- A focus on light’s changing qualities and the passage of time;
- Movement as central to human perception was particularly seen in the Post-Impressionists, especially in Van Gogh’s swirling skies, Munch’s emotional distortion.
Impression, Sunrise. Monet, 1872
Haystacks (Monet series), 1890-91
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Édouard Manet (1862-1863)
Edgar Degas, Ballet, c. 1876–1877, pastel on monotype, 58.4 × 42.0 cm, Gift of Gustave Caillebotte, 1896. Musée d’Orsay, France.
Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1906, oil on canvas, France.
In a Café, Degas. 1876
Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, Claude Monet, 1875
Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1899
afé Terrace at Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1888,
The Cradle (1872) by Berthe Morisot.
Renoir translates these painterly techniques into cinematic form. The riverbank, picnic, and boating excursion are quintessential Impressionist motifs. Just as Monet’s Sunrise or his Haystacks series emphasizes light, Renoir uses natural lighting and fluid camera movement to create mood and temporality.
Modern Beauty and the Heroism of Modern Life
Impressionism depicted the everyday—urban scenes, contemporary fashion, landscapes, leisure. Clothing and appearance became signs of identity and rebellion against classical ideals. Unlike classical art’s anonymous nudes, Impressionist figures are rooted in the present. Degas’s ballerinas or Manet’s barmaids suggest modern beauty with complexity and critique.
In A Day in the Country, fashion plays this same role. The Dufour women’s elaborate dresses contrast the boatmen’s casual clothes, highlighting both social and emotional constraints. This contrast reinforces Renoir’s critique of rigid societal roles and gendered expectations.
Edgar Degas. The Dance Class. 1874. Oil on Canvas, 32.9 × 30.4" (83.5 x 77.2 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Edouard Manet. A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. 1881-82. Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 51” (95.3 x 129.7 cm). Courtauld Institute Galleries, Home House Trustees, London.
A Fleeting Love Story
Renoir’s film captures the ephemeral nature of love. Henri and Henriette’s brief encounter becomes a lifelong emotional touchstone. A remarkable close-up of Henriette’s tear-filled eye provides an unforgettable image of nostalgia and regret. In Renoir’s Impressionist world, love is momentary—but transformative.
Synopsis:
A Parisian family—Monsieur Dufour, his wife, daughter Henriette, and future son-in-law Anatole—visit the countryside. While dining at “Restaurant Poulain,” they meet two young boatmen, Henri and Rodolphe. Under the guise of a river outing, the men distract the Dufour men with fishing and take the women out in boats. Henri and Henriette share a romantic moment on a secluded bank.
Years later, Henri returns and sees Henriette again—now married to Anatole. They speak briefly, acknowledging the weight of their lost connection.
Contrasting Pairs
Renoir structures the narrative around three character contrasts:
1. Henriette (reserved) vs. her flirtatious mother;
2. Henri (serious) vs. Rodolphe (carefree);
3. Monsieur Dufour (paternal) vs. Anatole (awkward).
The reserved Henriette & her flirtatious mother
The serious Henri & the carefree Rodolphe
The seemingly wise Monsieur Dufour & the awkward Anatole
Henri & Henriette
Romeo & Juliet
These pairings initially reflect social conventions. But as new dynamics emerge—Henriette and Henri’s unexpected intimacy; Madame Dufour and Rodolphe’s flirtation—Renoir reveals the fluidity of attraction and the fragility of social roles.
From Story to Screen: Love, Lust, and Irony
In Maupassant’s story, the tone is subdued and suggestive. Desire is hinted at through description and innuendo. Henriette is sensually drawn but emotionally ambiguous. The boatmen’s intentions are revealed with subtlety: “Let’s let them have our place—it’ll do for an introduction.”
Renoir, however, heightens melodrama and develops all characters more fully. Henri and Rodolphe openly plot seduction. Their banter—“Shall we take them separately or together?”—introduces both humor and unease. The line between charm and predation is blurred.
Yet, Renoir’s visuals complicate this. Henri’s yearning gaze and later melancholy cast him not only as a seducer but also as someone transformed by love. This ambiguity, laced with irony and regret, underscores the film’s depth.
Three Themes: Swing, River, Fishing
1. The Swing
The Feminine Gaze and Confinement
The swing sequence serves as a miniature of the whole film. Rodolphe opens a shutter to reveal Henriette on a swing—a visual link between interior and exterior, observer and observed. The sequence references Auguste Renoir’s The Swing(1876).
Pierre Auguste Renoir. Balançoire (The Swing, 1876) Oil on canvas. 92 x 73 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Henriette is gazed at by men: a clergyman, young boys, Rodolphe. Yet Renoir’s camera also adopts her perspective—soaring treetops and sky, evoking joy and escape. While objectified, she remains emotionally present. As Martin O’Shaughnessy notes, Renoir grants her interiority even as societal forces reduce her to a decorative object.
Still, the swing is framed by the window—a visual cage. It offers brief freedom but remains bound by patriarchy.
“As if all the trees on the bank were waving to her as she passed by.”
“She listened to the bird, lost in ecstasy.” “A nightingale! the music of the gods which accompanies human kisses.”
2. The River
Sentimental Pantheism and Liberation
Henriette’s bond with nature reflects what Webster calls “sentimental pantheism.” In one scene, a caterpillar moves her to near tears. “I feel a tremendous sort of tenderness… a vague sort of yearning.”
Nature, in Renoir’s hands, isn’t just scenic—it shapes human feeling. The Seine becomes a mirror of the characters’ inner lives. Clothing again symbolizes class division: the boatmen blend into nature; the Parisians, in their stiff attire, remain alienated from it.
The river is a force of seduction, reflection, and emotional awakening.
3. Fish and Fishing
Desire, Deception, and Satire
Fishing becomes the film’s central metaphor. Henri and Rodolphe distract the men with rods and bait, masking their true intentions. Fishing scenes echo themes of manipulation, desire, and entrapment.
Live bait (maggots), cooked fish at lunch, and artificial lures (hats, rods) all play into the symbolic web. The women are “caught,” while the men are willingly distracted. Webster sees these acts as Renoir’s way of exploring freedom, responsibility, and illusion.
Renoir’s satire emerges quietly. Through metaphor, he critiques marriage, seduction, and social roles—not with moralism, but with irony and compassion.
Conclusion
Partie de campagne is deceptively simple, yet thematically rich. Through Impressionist imagery, Renoir weaves together love, regret, nature, and social critique. His characters—haunted by a single summer day—remain suspended in memory, like brushstrokes on water.
This is not just a film about romance. It’s a meditation on fleeting beauty, and how a moment, like a sunlit swing or a river’s reflection, can change us forever.
