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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A special case in Renoir's oeuvre, 18 April 2006
Author: dbdumonteil

"Toni" did not continue the ferocious works of the early thirties which made Renoir the first director of the era.Gone were the attacks against the bourgeoisie which we found in "La Chienne" "Boudu Sauvé des Eaux" and even in the adaptations of novels from the nineteenth century such as "Madame Bovary" and "Nana".Toni is a special case in Renoir's work.It was probably his most accessible film of the era.It was at once his simplest and yet most complex effort .

Produced by Pagnol,in Pagnol's country,La Provence,with some of Pagnol's actors(Andrex was featured in "Angèle" whereas Charles Blavette was part of the cast of "La Femme du Boulanger"),it might look like a Pagnolesque movie but do not rely on appearances.Both the prologue and the epilogue could not be in a Pagnol movie in which the modern world (a bridge,an oil refinery)is almost absent.Unlike Pagnol,there's no humor or bonhomie in "Toni".The characters have not that colorful side which is Raimu's and Fernandel's trademarks.

It has been said a lot of times that "Toni" predated the Italian Neorealism by fifteen years .It's true for the prologue and the epilogue which frame the movie : the Italian workers coming to France to find a job in the railway station then on their way to the country of milk and honey,so to speak ,make me think of De Santis's "Risco Amaro" and of course De Sica's "Ladri di biciclette".But,as Jacques Lourcelles wrote,Italian Neorealism's main concern was to depict the immediate present,and Renoir 's movie's core is a story close to what the French called "chansons réalistes ",a field where Frehel and Edith Piaf won fame.The fact that it's based on a true story does not matter much:it could be a short news item.

"Toni" is ,no more ,no less,the story of characters constantly tearing each other apart.The hero,in love with Josepha,marries Marie and both of them aren't happy.As for Josepha she marries a brute and she lives with her husband and her cousin,a despicable coward.All that Toni and Josepha try to do to escape from an ominous fate backfires against them:the ending is telling since the two lovers ,trying to save each other,precipitate their ruin.

Admirable sequences:Toni and Josepha ,on the path,where she claims a bee is in her blouse;Marie,in her boat on the lake,intending to commit suicide ,a scene superbly filmed by Claude Renoir;Toni,desperately running on the bridge.

Renoir used to see La Provence as a tower of Babel (he told us so at the beginning of his film) ,the French (or Latin more like) melting pot.Spanish ,Italian joined their French brothers.And it's important to notice it,those aliens are not treated as inferiors ,or at least Renoir shows them so.

Minor quibble:Charles Blavette is not well cast as Toni;he 's got the famous Provençal accent whereas he is supposed to be an Italian!

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
The first great work of neo-realism is also the first great critique of neo-realism (spoilers), 9 April 2001
9/10
Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

'Toni' has a secure place in film history as a forerunner to Italian neo-realism: the director of the first neo-realist film, Luchino Visconti, worked as an assistant on this.

It is true, there is a matchless vividness in this film; unlike most so-called realists, and like, say, Altman, Renoir knew that realism wasn't simply a case of photographing the real. So, as well as the bracing location photography, the blazing sun, the breeze rustling the groves, the huge rock quarry, the impassive river, the dusty roads, 'Toni' is full of sounds, of footsteps, bicycles, industrial machines, but mostly of people, talking, singing, fighting, working, playing, eating. Even today, seven decades on and all our advances in technology, 'Toni' has the rare ability to convince you of an organic, teeming world.

But, even before the term was invented, Renoir exposes the limitations of neo-realism. Even ignoring the truism that pointing the camera at something is a subjective choice rather than an objective representation, you can't just point a camera at nature or people and expect audiences to remain interested, except the most dedicated Warholian. So you need a story.

Renoir may not accept the sentimentality that would become de Sica's stock-in-trade, but he does offer the hoariest of narratives - the love triangle, and murder. This is not to say that Renoir doesn't infuse these contrivances with an unheard-of humanity; that the beginning of Toni's affair with Josepha on a grove-bordered by-road isn't one of the most touching scenes in all cinema, Machiavellian flirtation unwittingly sparking tragedy and despair, but at this stage full of fun and play, even if a bee sting, no matter how suggestive, isn't terribly auspicious, suggesting a slow poison breaking down sprightly young bodies; or that the murder scene has an inexorable immediacy that transcends genre.

We don't even know that the film is heading in a generic direction until near the end, which makes the murder seem like it arose from realistic inevitability rather than generic necessity. That said, an artificial narrative frame is fixed onto the realism, and all the artistic decisions reinforce this frame, e.g. the need to focus on this particular character or incident, rather than not.

There is a second frame imposed, the subtextual one, if you like, the formal patterning which repeats scenes, images, motifs etc., right down to the circularity of the plot, beginning and ending with singing refugees disembarking a train for a new life, the exact same pan that ends on a bridge. This is a realistic bridge - it carries the refugees to the town; it is a narrative bridge, where the film's plot harrowingly climaxes; but it is also a symbolic (i.e. non-naturalistic) bridge, of crossing thresholds, connection, escape etc.

This is not to disparage Renoir's realism, or the complex humanity it engenders, the moving naturalism he elicits from his wonderful actors. Rather, it is to praise his critical genius. The framework he places on his realism, the artifice of certain scenes (the wedding, where Toni and Marie are removed from the local context against a stark black background; the theatrical posturing of Albert as he seduces Josepha; the stylised filming of the murder and the climactic stand-off) all create the film's meaning, whether that is the way human codes stifle freedom (after all, these are refugees who have escaped totalitarianism), or whatever.

Like Monet's portraits of the same phenomena at different periods of the day, Renoir shoots the same characters and locales at discretely different periods of time, revealing change and loss in a changeless environment. 'Toni' is a very great masterpiece.

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6 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A sad fate for a minor masterpiece, 18 September 2005
9/10
Author: patherto from Frostbite Falls, MN

After a long search, I found "Toni" on DVD from Shanghai, China. The price was reasonable and so I bought. Unfortunately, the subtitling was also done in Shanghai. This leads to such subtitles as "An unfortunate elephant violates Se perfume w." About three-quarters of the way through, the picture begins to come apart electronically, and becomes practically incomprehensible. Given all the problems with this disc, I am still glad I had the chance to once more see Renoir's simple, beautiful masterpiece. The subtle distinctions in lighting (especially outdoors), the small but telling camera moves, the reserved yet powerful performances all show the hand of a master at work. Visconti may have been inspired from working on this film, but his films were always pedal-to-the-metal, all-out mellers. Renoir takes a story that's as old as the hills and gives it all of his love, respect and considerable talent.

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1 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Early New Wave model, 30 November 2006
6/10
Author: Framescourer from London, UK

This is cinematic version of mid-late 19th century 'verismo' opera, with its working-class characters, realism and omerta-linked tragedy (this film even has a child dressed as a Pagliacco in the final shot).

What it doesn't have is the melodrama of its operatic forebears, which sometimes makes for a dry experience on screen. One can see how this gripped the imagination of the New Wave proper. The early murder and flight sequence of A Bout de Soufflé is remarkably similar to the final chase sequence in this film.

Charles Blavette overcomes the restrictions on expression to really make a sympathetic titular character, honest but bound by his immigrant status and class. The acting from the rest of the supporting cast is wildly mixed - it's very difficult to choose between the artists and the co-opted locals. Renoir's shooting is sophisticated: carefully framed, with a wide range of panning, tracking and selective focus and a sharp attention to continuity.

No historic document, but an entertaining New Wave movie nascent 6/10

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4 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Quel Jumelle elles ont le Toni, 4 April 2004
Author: writers_reign

There is more than a touch of the Pagnols here, both geographically and literally, indeed the print I saw even credited Pagnol as 1) a producer or (and more probably) 2, the use of his studio space. For reasons best known to himself Renoir chose to set a triangular love story in Pagnol turf, le midi and though the result is creditable it is difficult if not impossible to view a movie like this in the 21st century, with our knowledge that by the time it was shot Pagnol had seen his own trilogy on similar themes produced on both stage and screen. Nevertheless and despite ageing prints this remains well worth seeing and obligatory for the Renoir scholar. 6/10

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