Renoir has been called the most Mozartean of film directors, and The Little Theater of Jean Renoir, his last film, confirms the sense of eternal youth and rebirth contained in that observation. It presents four witty sketches-four variations on a theme, "C'est la revolution"-with an entr' acte performance by Jeanne Moreau as a kind of deadpan Nana. Renoir himself acts as master of ceremonies, raconteur, and interpreter. The sketches, played for a blatant artificiality-for instance, the tale of a wife who is in love with her floor waxer is sung as opera-nevertheless have a moral. "It is as if he were blowing everything a little out of proportion to bring the revolution home to the people who are in the midst of it but don't know it," wrote Cahiers du cinéma critic Michel Delahaye. "The most curious thing about Le Petit Théâtre is that it seems to have been made in the spirit of a first work, establishing the foundations for the next. Jean Renoir is our greatest debutant."