The Little Match Girl (La petite marchande d'allumettes)

Dir: Jean Renoir

1928

*****

Hans Christian Anderson's heart-breaking short story of The Little Match Girl is brought to life beautifully by one of the world’s greatest ever directors. Jean Renoir's silent film is full of wonder and amazing techniques for the era and Anderson's dream really does become a reality. Catherine Hessling really was stunningly beautiful, it is no surprise that she was discovered by the likes of Henri Matisse who introduced her to her future father-in-law Pierre-Auguste Renoir. You can tell how infatuated Jean Renoir was with his wife in this film, every single shot placing her at the centre even though she was probably a little too old for the part at 28. The dream sequences that the little match girl has are quite wonderful and brilliantly animated and the scene whereby reality melts away is still as striking today as it was in 1928. It is a million miles away from the sort of films he became famous for but it is quite an interesting point of reference in term of his technique and viewpoint and taking away the usual structures of silent film, you can still see much of what you see here in films he would make twenty and thirty years later. The dream sequence is a big part of the story but I would argue that the story's conclusion is the most important and both Renoir and Hessling capture the mood perfectly in all its melancholic glory. The lighting is perfect, to capture the glow from the tiny match flame must have been incredibly challenging, you have to wonder why Renoir would pick such a story to tell but I think it shows just how far he wanted to push himself and his wife. It's often overlooked but I think it is a very important work and I'm not sure many of the great directors were this capable this early in their careers, I think it is still to this day a stunning piece of film.