Renoir shot Toni, a high point in the history of Realism, in the South of France. One of his reasons for making the film was that he thought that this area was not regarded as belonging to France. He made the film without studio or sets, without stars and make-up, an approach that was unusual in the early days of sound film.The film starts as a simple and factual report on a crime passionnel. Toni, an Italian immigrant who has come to France in search of work, has a affair with Marie, his landlady. The other woman who loves him is the Spanish girl Josepha, who eventually marries the Belgian foreman Albert, who works in the same quarry as Toni. But Toni cannot escape his obsession for Josepha.
