Skip to main content

Toni

Director: Jean Renoir
Year: 1935
Run-time: 1 hr 30 min

- This is a film about immigrants in the south of France, but in my opinion at least it doesn't have too much to say about the immigrant experience, except as it relates to class.  In some sense I suppose it matters that the woman leaves Toni in order to be with an abusive native-born man matters, but it's hard for me to say just how the story would be different if Toni himself was French.  But it is a top-class story about relationships, with a heavy dose of melodrama but always with its eye on practicalities.  If the acting was a bit better, it would rank among Renoir's top films, but as such it's still an excellent watch.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cat Concerto

Directors: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera Year: 1947 I'm sure it's no coincidence that music plays such a strong role in many of the animated films featured on the list. By this point, there's nothing especially novel about this Tom and Jerry  short by another great animation studio led by Hanna and Barbera, except that the execution is so spot-on. This is eight minutes of pure delight. 
Post a Comment
Read more

The Land Beyond The Sunset

Director: Harold M. Shaw Year: 1912 Runtime: 0:14 Source: Youtube This is a great short film to watch if you're spending a hot summer in the city.  It was made by a little-known director as something of a PSA about the Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit which let inner-city children vacation in the countryside. (It's still going strong today!) A poor young newsie with an endearingly tattered cap gets to take a break from child labor and parental abuse, and join a group of kids for one day in the great outdoors. In many ways this would be the prototype of the heartwarming Pixar short, if the ending wasn't so poignant and bittersweet.  It's such a simple little film, but one that's absolutely worth 14 minutes of your life.
Post a Comment
Read more

I Walked With A Zombie

Director: Jacques Torneur Year: 1943 Run-time: 1 hr 9 min - If I were a snarky Youtube reviewer, I would subtitle this movie " Jane Eyre , with added sexism and racism". And there is some truth to that - the "wife in the attic" becomes the titular zombie, but her fate is largely due to her own desires to run away. Also, although Torneur takes a more honest look at the effects of colonialism and slavery than any contemporary film, the needs of the schlock-horror setup means that, yes, the powers of voodoo are actually real. Ultimately, this was a fascinating film, but a deeply flawed one. Torneur has a wide oeuvre, though, so I have rising hopes for the others of his films on the list.
Post a Comment
Read more