Picnic on the Grass

Jean Renoir's 1959 film is a comedy built on the opposition between science and nature. Etienne Alexis is a scientist standing for the leadership of a united Europe who advocates artificial insemination as the route to social improvement and says passion should be eliminated. At the meticulously planned picnic he holds to celebrate his engagement to a cousin, a shepherd plays a flute, a sudden storm blows up and the order collapses; Etienne is taken with the country girl Nénette and his whole doctrine falls apart. The film was shot in the Provence where Renoir's father lived and the images of the countryside draw on impressionist painting. The story is loose, parts of it are didactic and the humour may count as dated. It is one of Renoir's late works. Who it's for: viewers who like classic French cinema and Renoir. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a tightly built narrative; the film is scattered.