La Fille de l'Eau

Virginie lives on a barge with her father and uncle. Papa accidentally drowns, uncle develops an incestuous itch and Virginie flees into a series of adventures with a gypsy poacher, a brutal farmer and, for hero, a handsome young landowner. This was Renoir's first feature, and various influences are discernible: a dash of Stroheim here, a streak of Surrealism there. But the naturalistic settings, sensuously rendered (with very few interiors), contrasted with the theatricality of the narrative and an eccentric attitude to performance (especially that of the clown-like Hessling), already reveal a quite recognisable Renoir.