1930s%20French%20Cinema%20and%20Jean%20Renoir

1
1930s French Cinema and Jean Renoirs La Règle du
jeu
2
Structure of lecture

• Cinema in 1930s France history, technology and
  competing with Hollywood
• Poetic realism (dominant movement of 1930s in
  French cinema). Hôtel du Nord.
• Jean Renoir, cinema and politics (the 1936
  Popular Front).
• La Règle du jeu (1939)

3
Cinema in 1930s France

• Dominance of French cinema 1895-1914 and the rise
  of Hollywood. Sound 1927.
• Dominance of US films in France in early 1930s
  US studio structure vs non-integrated industry.
• French counter-attacked through regional and
  theatrical film, and through quality vs
  quantity.

4
Poetic realism 1

• Term coined by Jean Paulhan about 1929 novel La
  Rue sans nom and used by reviewer Pierre Chenal
  1933 (Cinémonde) about film adaptation
• Oxymoron? André Bazin poetry and realism
  work together in the cinema the greatest poetic
  realist films provoke poetry through their
  depiction of social conditions.
• Poetic realism a quiet movement, unlike
  Surrealism, and national not international
  (Every identifiable aesthetic develops within a
  national context, even if it later bleeds across
  political borders, Dudley Andrew, Mists of
  Regret). Link to film noir.

5
Poetic realism 2 Marcel Carné and Jacques
Prévert

• Le Quai des brumes (1938), Hôtel du Nord (1938),
  Le Jour se lève (1939), Les Enfants du Paradis
  (1942)
• Key features - atmospheric locations, characters
  from lower social classes, gloomy or downbeat
  endings, excellent actors/acting.
• Appeal lay between the popular and the
  sophisticated. The first foreign viewing for many
  US viewers, with art movie theaters created to
  show them.
• Not a political movement, poetic realism evaded
  pressing political problems and wallowed in
  regret (Andrew, Mists of Regret, p.16).

6
Poetic realism 3

• Hôtel du Nord (Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Jean-Pierre
  Aumont, Annabella). It replaces a cinema of
  events with one of people, language and milieu
  (Andrew, Mists of Regret).
• Sets key element excellent and internationally
  famous set designers and lighting technicians.
• International acclaim New York Critics Prize
  for best foreign film won successively by La
  Kermesse Héroïque (1935), Mayerling (1936), La
  Grande Illusion (1937), Regain (1937), La Femme
  du boulanger (1938). Feyder, Duvivier, Renoir
  other main directors contributing.
• It is arguably not a schoolNor is it a genre,
  yet it is something more than a style (Alan
  Williams, Republic of Images p.232)

7
Renoir, cinema and politics

• Four parts to career up to La Règle du jeu
  silent films, popular and theatrical films and
  Madame Bovary, Popular Front films,
  masterpieces 1937-39.
• Popular Front 1936, and films follow height of
  Renoirs commitment and its decline.
• Renoir can be tied to poetic realism only
  against his wishes and perhaps momentarily
  (Andrew, Mists of Regret p.299) in La Bête
  humaine.

8
La Règle du jeu 1 (1939)

• Meaning of title. Games and playing appear in
  hunt, romantic liaisons/affairs and theatre.
  Rules are those of society power, liberalism,
  emotional detachment.
• Violence, death and war
• Theatricality (1) shows and plays (2) confusion
  between theatre and life (3) ritual
• Places inside/outside and upstairs/downstairs,
  and intermediary spaces (corridor, entrance hall)

9
La Règle du jeu 2 camera movement and depth of
field

• Camera is mobile, fluid, often fast-moving
• It is in position of audience watching (stage)
  action absence of reverse shot and character
  identification
• Characters are filmed in pairs or groups, not
  alone
• Pan is most used shot, then tracking shot
• Profondeur de champ (1) premier plan and
  arrière-plan (2) characters shown in their
  environment(s), often vast, lavish and grand.