# The Whirlpool of Fate > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Whirlpool_of_Fate > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Whirlpool_of_Fate.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whirlpool_of_Fate > Source revision: 1355653197 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1925 film directed by Jean Renoir The Whirlpool of Fate Directed by Jean Renoir Written by Pierre Lestringuez Produced by Jean Renoir Starring Catherine Hessling Cinematography Jean Bachelet Alphonse Gibory Production company Les Films Jean Renoir Release date 20 March 1925 (1925-03-20) Running time 71 minutes Country France Languages Silent French intertitles *The Whirlpool of Fate* (1925) by Jean Renoir ***The Whirlpool of Fate*** or ***The Girl of the Water*** (French: ***La Fille de l'eau***) is a 1925 French [silent](/source/Silent_film) [drama film](/source/Drama_film) directed by [Jean Renoir](/source/Jean_Renoir) and starring [Catherine Hessling](/source/Catherine_Hessling) as its heroine. All of the French copies of this film have been [lost](/source/Lost_film) but English copies continue to exist with complete copies of the [intertitles](/source/Intertitle) (albeit in English). The intertitles have been translated back into French so that modern viewers in France can still enjoy the film in a way that is as close as possible to the original as it originally screened.[1] ## Plot In an age of [canals](/source/Canal) and [barges](/source/Barge), the movie takes place in the late 19th century. The scene opens with the slow progress of a barge making its way down a canal that is lined with oak trees. The heroine's brutish father, a pole man, is somehow knocked off the barge, where he disappears under the serene and still surface of the water. The camera lingers on the water, perhaps to detect a bubble or two rise from below, but nothing can be seen of the pole man's last breath. The death is purely by accident, and although a rescue effort is mounted, his body is not recovered until the next morning. Reduced to poverty from the loss of her father, the heroine falls back upon her own resources to eke out a simple living by stealing. She happens upon a rogue who has a similar lifestyle, and they join for a few brief acts of criminal mischief, but he is far more abandoned to petty crimes than she is. A classic case of mistaken identity leads to the heroine being accused of setting fire to a French peasant's haystack. Alarmed, the farmer peasant races to all his neighbors to help put the fire out. A wheeled water wagon is rushed from the village fire station to the scene of the crime, but no one can put out the fire. The peasants think she started the fire, and rush over to her gypsy wagon, and torch it. A macabre fire dance ensues as the locals dance around the burning gypsy wagon, shaking their fists at the wagon, not knowing if someone is inside it. ## Cast - [Catherine Hessling](/source/Catherine_Hessling) as Virginia Rosaert - [Charlotte Clasis](/source/Charlotte_Clasis) as Madame Maubien - [Pierre Champagne](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierre_Champagne&action=edit&redlink=1) as Justin Crepoix - [Maurice Touzé](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maurice_Touz%C3%A9&action=edit&redlink=1) as La Fuine - [Georges Térof](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georges_T%C3%A9rof&action=edit&redlink=1) as Monsieur Raynal - [Madame Fockenberghe](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madame_Fockenberghe&action=edit&redlink=1) as Madame Raynal - [Harold Levingston](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_Levingston&action=edit&redlink=1) as Georges Raynal - [André Derain](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Derain) as Patron du 'Bon Coin' - [Van Doren](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Van_Doren_(actor)&action=edit&redlink=1) as Young lover - [Pierre Lestringuez](/source/Pierre_Lestringuez) as Jef - [Henriette Moret](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henriette_Moret&action=edit&redlink=1) as La Roussette - [Pierre Renoir](/source/Pierre_Renoir) as Farmer ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [IMDB entry](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014898/) ## Bibliography - O'Shaughnessy, Martin. *Jean Renoir*. Manchester University Press, 20 October 2000. ## External links - [*The Whirlpool of Fate*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014898/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) v t e Jean Renoir Bibliography Filmography Films directed The Whirlpool of Fate (1925) Nana (1926) Charleston Parade (1927) Marquitta (1927) The Little Match Girl (1928) Le Bled (1929) On purge bébé (1931) La Chienne (1931) Night at the Crossroads (1932) Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) Chotard and Company (1933) Madame Bovary (1934) Toni (1935) Life Belongs to Us (1936) The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) The Lower Depths (1936) La Grande Illusion (1937) La Marseillaise (1938) La Bête Humaine (1938) The Rules of the Game (1939) Swamp Water (1941) This Land Is Mine (1943) The Southerner (1945) The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) "Partie de campagne" (1946) The Woman on the Beach (1947) The River (1951) The Golden Coach (1952) French Cancan (1955) Elena and Her Men (1956) The Doctor's Horrible Experiment (1959) Picnic on the Grass (1959) The Elusive Corporal (1962) The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1970) Books written Renoir, My Father (1962) The Notebooks of Captain Georges (1966) My Life and My Films (1974) Related Louis Lumière / conversation avec Langlois et Renoir Catherine Hessling (wife) Alain Renoir (son) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (father) Aline Charigot Renoir (mother) Pierre Renoir (brother) Gabrielle Renard Marguerite Renoir Authority control databases: National United States This article related to a French film of the 1920s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:1920s-France-film-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3A1920s-France-film-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:1920s-France-film-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [The Whirlpool of Fate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whirlpool_of_Fate) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whirlpool_of_Fate?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.