Le Tournoi

This epic medieval drama, detailing the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Carcassonne, would have little in common with Renoir's later, more personal and mature work, were it not for the decidedly human perspective from which he views the story. Not only is this a question of his clearly having felt rather more at home with the intimate scenes than with the action-packed spectacle; it's also a matter of his characters being far more recognisably prone to ordinary human shortcomings than are the larger-than-life heroes of more stilted epics. Indeed, his eye for telling detail was already sharp, while both the sparsely decorated interiors and the naturalistic performances lend his vision of the past a rare feeling of lived-in authenticity.