Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Toni Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2020

While there's some perhaps slightly perplexing disagreement in the supplements on this release as to whether or not Luchino Visconti actually had any direct involvement with this film (the commentary starts out by mentioning and then discussing at some length his association with the production, while an analysis by Christopher Faulkner explicitly states that this widely accepted trivia is in fact wrong*), there's clearly a through line from Toni to the Italian Neorealist movement, as even Jean Renoir himself at least alludes to in his archival introduction to the film also included on this disc as a bonus item. Renoir, despite his almost monolithic contemporary reputation, was not that successful in his early film career, and in fact seemed to be a kind of "pretender" cashing in on his justly famous surname. The fact that sales of his father's legendary paintings (discussed in one of the supplements) financed his early career in the movie industry might have also contributed to the perception that Renoir fils (and/or grandfils as the case may be) was something of a poseur. If that reaction to this particular Renoir probably didn't widely change for the better until the release of films like La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game, Toni, which appeared a few years before these two films, at least started to pave the way for a reappraisal of Renoir's talents. Toni is a remarkable achievement by any standard, one of the first French films shot entirely on location at a time when the technologies of the day didn't really lend themselves to such an audacious undertaking, and it is also ostensibly culled from a real life incident, making this a "ripped from the headlines" affair that has a number of socioeconomic substrata that in fact can seem positively prescient in terms of aspects that concerned the Italian Neorealists in such films as Bicycle Thieves.

*An essay on Criterion's site also explicitly discounts the involvement of Visconti on this particular film, though he later did collaborate with Renoir.

Toni certainly has more than its fair share of inherent interest in terms of its plot, but some of its allure may come from certain "meta" elements, including the undeniable involvement of Marcel Pagnol in the production. Toni in fact can be seen as at least something of a sibling, or at least a "step sibling", to some of Pagnol's legendary pieces revolving around the working class in southern France like Marius, Fanny, and César (all three films are aggregated on Blu-ray by Criterion in The Marseille Trilogy). In this case, an Italian immigrant named Toni (Charles Blavette) arrives in France in search of employment. He's just one of a parade of similarly situated newcomers, as is mentioned discursively by two other immigrants who see Toni's train pulling into town and recount their own more or less identical stories, though it's interesting to note that these two "established" immigrants briefly complain that the new arrivals are going to steal their jobs.

Toni takes a room at a boarding house run by a woman named Marie (Jenny Hélia), and a halting romance soon blossoms. A ménage à trois of sorts ensues when another woman named Josefa (Celia Montalván) also captures Toni's eye. Suffice it to say that a number of romantic complications arise, with the interrelationships between these three characters and Josefa's ultimate abusive relationship with Albert (Max Dalban) leading to tragedy. If the star-crossed lovers aspect is almost willfully histrionic at times, there's an unabashed verité ambience that suffuses the film, with Renoir documenting the day to day lives of people struggling to claw their way into even the middle class. As the essay linked to above mentions, this socioeconomic aspect that tends to highlight class more than nationality makes Toni presage Grand Illusion in some interesting ways.

The technical achievement of this film really can't be understated, given all of the outdoor location photography it offers, but in some ways, it's Renoir's nascent stylistic flourishes that really give Toni some of its most powerful moments. There are brief vignettes here that almost approach Abstract Expressionism at times, something that's kind of odd given the film's proto-Neorealist ambience, but which certainly help to elevate the perceived psychological aspects.

Toni Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Toni is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. In lieu of an insert booklet, Criterion provides an accordion style foldout which contains the following information on the transfer:

Toni is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new 4K digital restoration was undertaken by Gaumont with the support of the CNC at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy, and Paris from the 35 mm original camera negative and a 35 mm fine grain positive from the Cinémathèque française.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35 mm nitrate optical soundtrack positive and restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata.

This is by and large a really stunning accounting of the film, one that preserves some great fine detail (look at the pattern on Toni's cap for just one example) while also offering a secure presentation of the film's really interesting cinematography. Blacks are superb for the most part and gray scale well modulated. There are some fluctuations to be noticed which I'm assuming stem from the difference in source elements, with a few interstitial sequences looking a bit blanched and less precisely detailed. There are also a few moments where it seems evident that focus pulling wasn't all that it might have been, a perhaps understandable situation given the immense challenges of the location shoot with the technologies involved. Grain can fluctuate somewhat with the different sources, but generally resolves very well. My score is 4.25.

Toni Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With an understanding that this was recorded live under sometimes challenging conditions and that the production obviously stems from a relatively early phase of the "talkie" era, with all that that implies in terms of technologies and fidelity, this is a really surprisingly full bodied sounding track. The film has quite a bit of music in it, some performed live on screen, and the playing and singing sound warm and inviting. Outdoor scenes offer surprisingly good mixing, all things considered, with dialogue rendered cleanly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Toni Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary stems from 2006 and features Kent Jones and Phillip Lopate. While this arguably gets off to a somewhat rocky start with the discussion about Visconti, it does provide a wealth of background and production information. I'm not sure if this was a mixing issue or just that these guys are seriously laid back, but I had a hard time hearing them at times.


• Introduction by Jean Renoir (1080i; 2:50) is from 1961. In French with English subtitles.


• Cinéastes de Notre Temps (1080p; 1:38:25) is an interesting 1967 archival piece done for French television by Jacques Rivette featuring both Jean Renoir and Charles Blavette. In French with English subtitles.


• Christopher Faulkner (1080p; 25:14) is a great 2020 analysis of the film by Renoir ' scholar Faulkner. This is narrated by Jen Cohn.

An accordion style foldout insert includes an interesting reprint of a 1956 piece by Jean Renoir on the film, along with cast and crew information and verbiage about the transfer.

Toni Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Toni hasn't really achieved the renown of some of Jean Renoir's better remembered films, but if you're a fan of either Grand Illusion or Rules of the Game, my hunch is you'll find a lot to captivate you here. Those with an interest in Marcel Pagnol's writing should also find this a curiously effective companion piece. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplementary package very enjoyable. Highly recommended.