Toni

In 1934, Jean Renoir stepped off the soundstage and headed to the South of France, where he captured vivid human drama amid the bucolic splendor and everyday social rituals of the countryside. Based on a true story and set in a community of immigrants living, working, and loving on the margins of French society, Toni follows the eponymous Italian migrant (Charles Blavette), whose tempestuous affairs with two women—the faithful Marie (Jenny Hélia) and the flirtatious Josefa (Celia Montalván)—unleash a wave of tragedy. Making use of nonprofessional actors, on-location shooting, and the resources of the great Marcel Pagnol’s Provence studio, Renoir crafted a marvel of poetic feeling that anticipated Italian neorealism and became a favorite of the directors of the French New Wave

France
1935
84 minutes
Black & White
1.37:1
French
Spine #1040

Special Features

Blu-ray Special Edition Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary from 2006 featuring critics Kent Jones and Phillip Lopate
Introduction by director Jean Renoir from 1961
“Jean Renoir le patron: La recherche du relatif,” a 1967 episode of Cinéastes de notre temps on Renoir, directed by Jacques Rivette and featuring a conversation with actor Charles Blavette about the film
New video essay about the making of Toni by film scholar Christopher Faulkner
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 1956 piece by Renoir about the film

New cover by Katherine Lam

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $27.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $20.96 SRP: $29.95

Blu-ray Special Edition Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary from 2006 featuring critics Kent Jones and Phillip Lopate
Introduction by director Jean Renoir from 1961
“Jean Renoir le patron: La recherche du relatif,” a 1967 episode of Cinéastes de notre temps on Renoir, directed by Jacques Rivette and featuring a conversation with actor Charles Blavette about the film
New video essay about the making of Toni by film scholar Christopher Faulkner
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 1956 piece by Renoir about the film

New cover by Katherine Lam

Cast & Credits

Cast

Charles Blavette: Toni
Celia Montalván: Josepha
Jenny Hélia: Marie
Max Dalban: Albert
Andrex: Gabi
Édouard Delmont: Fernand
André Kovachevitch: Sebastian

Credits

Director: Jean Renoir
Screenplay by: Jean Renoir
Screenplay by: Carl Einstein
Dialogue by: Jacques Levert
Producer: Pierre Gaut
Associate producer: Marcel Pagnol
Cinematography: Claude Renoir
Editing: Suzanne de Troeye
Editing: Marguerite Renoir

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A scene from Toni

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Explore

Jean Renoir

Writer, Director

The son of the great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir was also a master of his medium: cinema. After making his mark in the early thirties with two very different films, the anarchic send-up of the bourgeoisie Boudu Saved from Drowning and the popular-front Gorky adaptation The Lower Depths, Renoir closed out the decade with two critical humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made: Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game (the former was celebrated in its time, but the latter was trashed by critics and audiences—until history provided vindication). After a brief, unfulfilling Hollywood stint during World War II, Renoir traveled to India to make his first Technicolor film, The River, and then returned to Europe in the early fifties to direct three visually dazzling explorations of theater, The Golden Coach, French Cancan, and Elena and Her Men. Renoir persisted in his cinematic pursuits until the late sixties, when, after the completion of The Little Theater of Jean Renoir, a collection of three short films, he decided to dedicate himself solely to writing, leaving the future of the medium to those who looked to him in reverence.