La Petite marchande d'allumettes
1928 Fantasy / Drama
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Credits
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Summary
One Christmas time, Karen, a young match seller, shivers in the cold whilst busy middle-class
people brush past her, scarcely noticing her. Overcome by the cold, Karen falls
into a deep sleep and starts to dream. She finds herself in a toyshop where the
toys around her - including a battalion of wooden soldiers, come to life. Karen
falls in love with one of the toy soldiers, a handsome young officer who dances with her.
A horseman suddenly bursts from a box and announces that he has an appointment with Karen
- he is death. As a demonstration of his power, the horseman starts to kill the
toys around him. With death close behind them, Karen and her new lover speed away
on a horse, flying up into the clouds...
Review
La Petite marchande d'allumettes is regarded by many critics as one of the best
of Jean Renoir’s silent films. The director’s genius is revealed in the film’s remarkable
fantasy sequence which - similar to the dream sequence in Renoir’s earlier film La
fille de l’eau (1924) - employs an impressive array of special effects to great
effect.
The film’s only noticeable flaw is - as in many of Renoir’s early films - the director’s choice of lead actress. Catherine Hessling (Renoir’s wife) lacks the girlish innocence to be at all convincing in the role of the match girl and her performance is at times vulgar and unsophisticated. It is an indication of the film’s greatness that Hessling’s miss-casting scarcely matters. The film stands as a beautiful example of a French silent cinema, having all the charm and poignancy of the Hans-Christian Andersen tale on which it is based. © James Travers 2003 
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