Disjointed, lyrical, uneven, beautiful, [Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe] is magnificently in love with life, with nature. The warm, sunlit landscapes of Provence bring out in full the list enhancing qualities of his art….

This passionate and poetic fable-fantasy, as luminous as a story by La Fontaine, is set in a not-too-distant future when Europe is united, and science is (almost) in control. It departs enough from realism to introduce Pan, thinly disguised as a goat herd yet, through the solidity of its detail and the authenticity of its background the film is firmly anchored in reality. The clue has been given, as always, by Renoir himself. "I distrust modern realism. It seems to me under the pretext of showing reality the realists stick to one side of reality—the dark side. The truth is that only a poetic interpretation of reality can lead an audience to discover...