Jean Renoir Shorts (1927)

Synopsis: Made under the auspices of Jean Tedesco of the avant-garde Vieux-Colombier theater, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL stars Catherine Hessling as the eponymous character. With little success, the girl tries to... Made under the auspices of Jean Tedesco of the avant-garde Vieux-Colombier theater, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL stars Catherine Hessling as the eponymous character. With little success, the girl tries to sell her matches on a snowy night, under the eye of a suspicious policeman. Afraid to return to her home, she goes to sleep under a plank and begins to dream. A wealthy young man who had passed her by reappears as a toy soldier, and the policeman appears as the jack-in-the-box, Hussar, with a skull and crossbones on his cap. The Little Match Girl and the soldier ride on horseback across the sky, trying to escape the specter of death. Johnny Huggins stars in THE CHARLESTON as a black man arriving from Central Africa into the Terra Incognita of the Europa Deserta (Paris) in the year 2028, riding a spherical flying machine. At the Eiffel Tower, a savage maiden (Catherine Hessling) wearing elbow-length kid gloves and flowers in her hair lassos a gorilla in a papier-mache mask. Johnny is soon captured and tied up by the maiden, who performs a dance of courtship, the Charleston. "I have discovered the dance of the white people, and I'm going to learn it," says Johnny. The maiden jumps into Huggins's vehicle, and they take off for Africa. [More]

Director: Jean Renoir

Director: Jean Renoir