Hans Christian Andersen's tale of a destitute matchgirl whose only respite is fantasy was filmed by Renoir and Tedesco in their makeshift studio-generating electricity from an automobile motor and battery, building lamps and reflectors that were forerunners of modern floodlights. This fairy-tale film with Catherine Hessling "blatantly contradicts the fallacious notion of Renoir as essentially a realist....It amused Renoir to superimpose impressionism on expressionism. The special effects were not created for the sake of fantasy but as ends in themselves, as games to amuse their inventor." (Bazin)