Toni (1935)

The National Film Theatre is doing a retrospective of the films of Jean Renoir (son of the impressionist) and I thought I should fill in some of his that I've not seen previously.  Many people think he is one of the greatest -- if not THE greatest -- directors ever, and while he made a number of terrific films, I wouldn't join this crowd, especially not on the strength of this evening's viewing.  Although this movie is hailed as a forerunner of the Italian realist films of the 40s (and Visconti did cut his teeth as a production assistant to Renoir), I found it very disappointing.  Not only was it a poor print, but I felt it was badly acted and worse still badly edited.  The British Film Institute lists this movie amongst its essential viewing list and I do wonder why when Renoir should be better remembered for "La Regle du jeu" or "La Grande Illusion".  I don't buy into the argument that simply because he filmed on location and used some non-professionals in his cast that the result was necessarily a masterpiece.  I have other missing Renoirs booked over the coming weeks and hope I can be more enthusiastic.