Maupassant and Renoir in two Picnic Stories (Parties de Campagne) Cover Image

Maupassant et Renoir en deux parties de campagne
Maupassant and Renoir in two Picnic Stories (Parties de Campagne)

Author(s): Sergiu Miculescu
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Editura Echinox
Keywords: film adaptation; literary text; script; vital instinct; fishing; water and light symbolism; painting; pleasure; eroticism.

Summary/Abstract: This essay is a comparative analysis of Maupassant's short story "Une partie de campagne" and its cinematographic adaptation "Partie de campagne" by Jean Renoir (1936). There are some evident similarities of taste and aesthetics between the two, such as a strong sense of reality and the obsessive exploration of the symbolism of water, light and sensuality. Nevertheless, Renoir's film has certain particularities of its own:: Poulain, the innkeeper, played by Jean Renoir himself, becomes the expression of the director's hedonism. The film also pays a tribute to impressionist painting in general and to Auguste Renoir in particular. However the famous swing scene is quite different in the film. Generally speaking, Maupassant's structural pessimism is toned down by Jean Renoir's Epicureanism.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 06
  • Page Range: 141-152
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: French