Rating: 
Summary: A love poem to his wife
Review: Newly married, Jean made a film about a happy marriage. Who can forget the beautiful soundtrack and the moving images of Sam and Nona working and sleeping side by side, working and sleeping as the summer goes by. I like to think that this film was Jean Renoir's love poem to his wife. With this film Jean begins a renewal that will culminate in the least cynical and most sincere of his films, The River.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for movie, 3 for DVD quality
Review: Renoir's "The Southerner" captures the gripping poverty of southern share croppers. It has a good story line, beautiful black and white cinematography, and fine acting. In fact my only objection is that the actors did not have much of a southern accent and looked "too pretty" at times for their environment. This is a film that cries out for restoration, as has been done with the wonderful Criterion Collection DVD of "Grand Illusion". As it is, I rated this 4 stars because of the 2 to 3 star poor condition of the print used...black lines, jumping images at times and poor soundtrack. Well, you can't have everything and would still recommend seeing this movie. Together with "Grapes of Wrath" and "Salt of the Earth", it draws a powerful portrait of the power of a family and human kindness in a struggle against grinding poverty.
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