A Sunday in the Country

A summer Sunday in 1912. The elderly painter Ladmiral's son arrives at his country house with his family. In the afternoon his daughter turns up unannounced. Over one day they eat, walk in the garden, and everything unsaid circles the table. Bertrand Tavernier directed. Louis Ducreux plays the painter, Sabine Azema his daughter. The subject is an artist's quiet regret about his own career: he became a good painter, but chose the safe ground while his contemporaries moved into impressionism, and he knows it now. The camera is in constant gentle motion; the scenes resemble not a painting but the air inside one. The cinematography is what the film is most remembered for. Tavernier won Best Director at Cannes in 1984, and Azema was named best actress in France. It runs under ninety minutes and stays in one place. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet family drama and period atmosphere. Who it is not for: anyone wanting incident; the film deliberately describes a day in which almost nothing happens.