Partie De Campagne (aka A Day In The Country) (1936)

In 1860, the owner (Andre Gabriello) of a hardware store in Paris takes his wife (Jane Marken), daughter (Sylvia Bataille), mother in law (Gabrielle Fontan) and ill bred shop assistant (Paul Temps) for a day in the country. They stop for a picnic lunch along the banks of the Seine. It is there that two young men (Georges D'Arnoux, Jacques B. Brunius) plot to seduce both daughter and mother. Based on a short story by Guy De Maupassant and clocking in at under an hour, this is a poignant yet sensual interlude. Visually, the director Jean Renoir approximates the impressionism of his father (Auguste Renoir) and it's ravishing. One can only contemplate what Renoir might have done if he had shot the film in color. This isn't a regret, the film is visually stunning, just a thought. The film is languid, perfectly approximating a lazy afternoon so that one is caught unprepared for the pathos of the film's epilogue. Lovely and haunting and one of the gems of cinema. Reputedly Luchino Visconti was one of Renoir's assistant directors on the film.