La Petite Marchande d'Allumettes - 1928 - 6/10
AKA - The Little Match Girl
An early holiday gem.
Creative silent short from Jean Renoir of classic Hans Christian Andersen tale.
Young girl sets out during a bitter cold blizzard and attempts to sell matches to bustling pedestrians.
She peers into the window of the toy shop, and the glamorous - and warm - restaurant.
Catherine Hessling makes a good waif, in the best tradition of Mary Pickford.
Fantasy sequences are imaginative, and the props, clearly models, lend a fairy touch.