Director: Jean Renoir & Jean Tedesco
Starring: Catherine Hessling (The Little match Girl, Karen)
Jean Storm(The Young Man & Officer)
Manuel Raabi(Policeman & Black Hussar)
Screenplay: Jean Renoir's adaptation of Hans Christiam Anderson's The Little Match Girl
France - 31 minutes - Short Film
Directed by Jean Renoir it comes to no surprise that this adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy-tale is a little bleaker than the original story (and it's a sad fairy tale), but it’s pretty darn impressive. People who worship the fairy tale may be a bit disappointed that this adaptation strays from the original. And what we get is Renoirs own modern impression of the story. Renoir's would later go on to direct The Rules of the Game (1939), The Grand Illusion (1937) and The Bitch (1931). His version of The Little Match Girl is nothing like any other film of his that I've seen so far and I was surprised when i saw he directed it, seemed so out of his zone. The lead is played by a not so little Catherine Hessling (Nana, 1926 dir: Jean Renoir) who was 28 at the time and Jean Renoir's then wife. Although she is 28 she does pull off playing Karen with a kind of naivety and innocence, some suggest she's plays Karen with a kind of Charlie Chaplin appeal, which I dig.. The First half of the picture reminded me so much of a street movie with a message of social injustice or something, the beautiful fairy tale back drops and set seemed like the only real fairy tale aspect of the film in the beginning. What this film is most praised for today is Jean Renoirs use of lighting and the special effects seen in the dream sequences which are sublime.
Its New Year’s Eve in "a city far to the north” and Karen stands on the snowy street trying to sell matches. She is almost invisible to people who pass her by. She stops and stares into a toy shop, unable to sell a match as everyone who stops near her escapes into warmth she retires. Starving and tired she starts to hallucinate about bright Christmas trees as she tries to warm herself with her matches. She falls asleep on the cold street and starts to dream about the toy shop coming to life. In the toy shop she encounters a handsome officer but Karen and her fairy tale prince charming are disrupted when a black Hussar comes and announces “I have a date with Karen, I am Death". Karen and the officer get on their horses and ride into the sky as the Hussar chases them. Until the officer falls back to earth and Death lays her on a hilltop and roses grow over top of her.
"How stupid to think you can warm up with matches"
This was the only version I could find over the web there aren't English subtitles included but if your familiar with it it should be no problem This film is part of the Jean Renoir Collectors Box Set 
3 comments:
Great stuff, I'd never seen it. Thanks for posting it.
You can kind of see how Renoir shifted his approach to dealing with social problems in the way he handles the bit about the rich man fishing through his pockets as if looking for change -- here, he eventually pulls out a handkerchief and blows his nose; in Boudu Saved From Drowning, he's so obviously making a great show of looking for small change he has no intention of giving away, Boudu finally gives up and hands him a five franc note. Like Renoir decided a wry joke was more effective than direct criticism.
By the way, I've been enjoying your series about 1928 movies. Good stuff.
P.S. Today's word verification: "batman."
I hope the fact its not translated in english wasn't a prob, unless you fluent in French of course.!
Cool!! i'm glad you liking the series, I'm enjoying watching all these films, great fun.
I haven't seen Boudu yet, another film on the got-too-see list.
"P.S TODAYS WORD VERIFICATION: BATMAN"?
I don't speak French, but there are only about six lines of dialogue in the whole movie and you can pretty much guess what they mean from context and from your essay. Like most good silent movies, the images tell the story.
Word verification? That bit of random gibberish one must type in to leave a comment -- usually it's something like "inglyc" (which is what it is for this comment) -- but when I left the comment this morning, it was "batman" which I found a bit bizarre ...
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