Preceded by short: Midlands at Play and at Work (Douglas Hickox, Henri Cartier-Bresson, U.K., 1963). Henri Cartier-Bresson's photographs of the working class in England. (24 mins, In English, B&W, 35mm) (La Terre). A theater director, cinema critic, and scriptwriter who came to directing films late in life, André Antoine was a proponent of the "new naturalism," and saw in the cinema a chance for "living, outdoor creation." Where his 1922 masterpiece The Swallow and the Titmouse (PFA, 1984) was an original work that anticipated neorealism by almost thirty years, The Earth, based on Zola, captures the author's sense of naturalism and even the flavor of a great novel, while being the essence of that outdoor cinema. It was shot on location in the Beauce region below Chartres, with what has been accurately described as a Millet-like beauty, and a vision wherein people, animals, and shafts of wheat are equally due their close-ups. The story tells of the passions and rivalries surrounding an old farmer who divides his land among his three offspring, each more unworthy than the last, and each determined to rob him of his land and his meager pension. The presence of an outsider, Jean, precipitates tragic results as these machinations are uncovered. But life and the earth go on: Antoine succeeded in creating a beautiful film that respects the pessimism of Zola and the optimism of cinema.