The Little Match Girl

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Audience Member It seems like Jean Renoir was ahead of his time even during the silent era of cinema. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member The Little Matchstick Girl is my favorite holiday story of all time. I have no idea what story Jean Renoir was talking about. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member While I had a hard time overcoming the fact that the (supposed to be) poor little girl was played by a woman who seemed to be around 30 years old, and she didn't quite look any poor at all to me, in that fancy dress and hat. Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. For you who doesn't know what The Little Match Girl, is about I can tell you it's basically about a little girl, barefoot and dressed in rags, who is trying to sell match-sticks on Christmas Eve. She cannot go home until she has sold all the macth-sticks because her father would beat her. Like most of H.C. Andersen's tales, this one has a very tragic ending, and overall is a very depressing story. Jean Renoir put a much more cheerful tone on his adaptation. The portrayal of the girl, especially, discturbed me at first (it felt like watching a movie with a blonde Snow White!). But like the master of cinema and true artist Jean Renoir was, he turnes this into his own piece. Some of the tragic essence is lost and replaced by hope and dreams, even though it ends just as tragic as H.C. Andersen's tale. The dream/hallucination scenes were absolutely brilliant, and ironically I all the time expected it to fail there. This movie a strong impact on me, and I was delighted and suprised that Renoir's progressive style worked on this classic fairy tale. It really moved me. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member A short silent film which starred Jean Renoir's wife - curious choice for the little match girl, who I had always imagined as a little girl. Some of the cinematic effects are very interesting, and the toyshop 'dream' was quite stunning. The film is very bleak - I'm not sure if it is more so than Hans Christian Anderson's story, but this definitely hasn't had the Disney happy-ending treatment. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Classic fairy tale told more true to its source than the modern, happy-ending version for children. In the hallucinations sequence, Renoir composes beautiful, haunting visuals to accompany the transition from life to death of the little match girl. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Little Match Girl

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