based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, was the result of Renoir's desire to make "a short film which would be made with the same care as a long film." Because of problems in production, it is often called an "unfinished masterpiece." Many critics and theorists disagree with this notion and consider the film a perfectly finished work. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, with its images dappled with light and shadow, it evokes the Impressionist painters-in particular, the director's father, Auguste Renoir-in describing a Paris family's journey to the country and an impossible, short-lived love.