Elena et Les Hommes

Jean Renoir - 1956
The light is so, so hard, the colours huge, in this picture.
Not my favourite Renoir. I found the plot, the farce, with short scenes and crowds, far too fast. No time to build up character, which is Renoir's genius. I found it to become tedious and, on occassion, annoying, though individual moments of rest showed that this is still the film of a great artist.
One elemtent of slightly annoying cliched Frenchness, but formal interest, was the flower seller with her song. Clearly there to, in an Ophulsian manner, show the circulairty, the game, the play of life. Existence as a mask, the world's a stage; is that pessimism?