Eight years after shooting his last film for the big screen Renoir shot this for TV so whichever way you look at it it was his swansong and it's a shame he couldn't have gone out on a higher note. Renoir introduces each of the four segments talking directly to camera, a technique first employed by Somerset Maugham in 1948 when he introduced four of his short stories in the portmanteau movie Quartet. The first segment smacks of O'Henry (who had, of course, had his own portmanteau in Full House), the second is a sketch that Renoir allows to go on too long and the third is a tad bizarre. Renoir shoots a static Jeanne Moreau as she stands centre stage and sings a maudlin song. Not a lot wrong here but we do find ourselves wondering what point if any he was trying to make. Obviously Renoir scholars and completists will want to see this but it really is unremarkable.
