Long a missing piece of the Jean Renoir puzzle (between his MADAME BOVARY/’34 misfire and the great late-‘30s run starting with THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE/’36), TONI wasn’t properly restored till 2019. (Criterion release 2020.) But well worth the wait as this unique work sees Renoir forego Paris for Southern Province and 100% on-location working-class drama of foreign quarry workers and the local women they find readily available in a male depleted post-WWI France. Purportedly a true crime story, one of those doomed love quadrangles with loyal Marie who has rooms to rent; flirtatious Josefa who likes having a spare man on the side; immigrant Italian laborer Toni moving from one to the other; and French foreman Max Dalban, villain in the piece, all four helpless in the face of malleable affection & unreturned longing. Registered in plain, naturistic style by Renoir (nephew Pierre in his first major cinematography assignment), with wonderful supporting turns from carefree lover Andrex and sympathetic pal Michel Kovachevitch. The film, oft cited as proto-Neo-Realism or prescient Nouveau Vague in style, does have some elements that lean that way. But with it’s neatly rhymed narrative momentum, largely professional actors in leading roles, and sense of high dramatic determinism among the working-class, it’s just as close (if not closer) to operatic verismo (think CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA or LOUISE) than it is to Rossellini or De Sica. And, if not without a few awkward beats (after its unsuccessful first-run the film was edited down by about three reels), it’s still memorable stuff, still echt Renoir.
DOUBLE-BILL: Charles Blavette (Toni) again worked with Renoir in 1959's PICNIC ON THE GRASS. Though the Renoir film that best matches with TONI is his four-reel masterpiece A DAY IN THE COUNTRY/’46.
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