Whirlpool of Fate (1925) La fille de l'eau (original title)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writer:

Pierre Lestringuez

Release Date:

20 March 1925 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

After the death of her father and her uncle had drunk all the heritage, Virginia is left alone. She...

Plot Keywords:

Thief | Village | Homelessness | Poaching | Automobile

Cast

Catherine Hessling	...	Virginia Rosaert
Charlotte Clasis	...	Madame Maubien
Pierre Champagne	...	Justin Crepoix
Maurice Touzé	...	La Fuine
Georges Térof	...	Monsieur Raynal
Madame Fockenberghe	...	Madame Raynal
Harold Levingston	...	Georges Raynal
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
André Derain	...	Patron du 'Bon Coin'
Van Doren	...	Young lover
Pierre Lestringuez	...	Jef
Henriette Moret	...	La Roussette
Pierre Renoir	...	Farmer

Directed by
Jean Renoir

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Pierre Lestringuez

Produced by
Jean Renoir	....	producer

Cinematography by
Jean Bachelet
Alphonse Gibory

Set Decoration by
Jean Renoir

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pierre Champagne	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Les Films Jean Renoir

Distributors

• Grapevine Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Lionsgate Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Maple Pictures (2007) (Canada) (DVD)
• StudioCanal (2006) (France) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"La fille de l'eau" - France (original title)

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Bords du Loing, Montigny-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France

Company:

Les Films Jean Renoir

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hugo (2011)

WHIRLPOOL OF FATE (Jean Renoir, 1925) ***

Admittedly made merely to exploit his wife Catherine Hessling's "photogenic" attributes, Jean Renoir's solo directorial debut already displays his trademark humanism and painterly eye – while Hessling herself turns in a far more naturalistic performance here than she did in NANA (1926).

The plot is simple and melodramatic: Hessling loses her father, is abused by her brutish uncle (possibly inspired by Griffith's BROKEN BLOSSOMS [1919]), falls in with crooked gypsies (who ultimately incur the wrath of the people and have their caravan burned to the ground), is taken in by a wealthy family but is caught stealing for her uncle's sake…until the latter gets his come-uppance and the girl is engaged to her employer's young son. The accompanying organ score is effectively evocative to begin with but, eventually, it takes a tediously avant-gardist turn.

The film's barge opening anticipates Jean Vigo's L'ATALANTE (1934) and the search at sea, F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE (1927); there is also some remarkably fast cutting throughout, a style which Renoir would largely forsake in his subsequent work. The highlight of WHIRPLOOL OF FATE, however, is undoubtedly an amazing dream sequence which, uncharacteristically for the director, is heavily reliant on optical effects and camera technique; incidentally, the two shorts I followed it with on Lionsgate 3-Disc "Jean Renoir's Collector's Edition" proved similarly experimental.