The recent release of Georges Rouquier's Biquefarre (see November 13) has revived interest in the director's 1947 classic, Farrebique, which is a companion piece to the new film. An experiment in neorealism and even cinéma verité, Farrebique was the subject of great controversy and was finally hailed as an artistic masterpiece. Rouquier, a director of documentaries, had for years been following the fates of his country cousins on their farm in Aveyron, south-central France. Desiring to base a film on their lives, he wrote a dramatic script which featured the Rouquier family and hired them as actors; the result is a lyrical documentary of a year in the life of a farm family as seen through the loving and curious eyes of the artist. The familiar gestures of farm life, from kneading the dough to reaping the harvest, and the swaying of jonquils in the breeze, are depicted in select detail. Stunning stop-motion photography of clouds, shadows and bursting seedlings emphasizes the passing of time over four seasons. But it is the effect of time on the lives of humans that is the subject of Farrebique (and even more so of Biquefarre): the story involves a dispute between the paterfamilias, his two sons and their families over whether to modernize by bringing in electricity, or to spend the money repairing the ancient farmhouse.