Jean Renoir's 'The Rules of The Game' (1939)
'If one movie can stand for all others, represent all that film can be, that film is The Rules of the Game.' - Paul Schrader, Writer-Director-Critic
No man is an island. We exist in a universe where we have to
interact with many others, often with very different characters and sentiments
that may not strike a positive vibe with ourselves. Are there ever any key to
unlock all these intricate connections? Once upon a time, there was a great director
in the name of Jean Renoir. Although Mr. Renoir already considered himself as
someone from the 19th century, his profound and lasting influence
has continued until these days, and he has inspired directors as diverse as
Kurosawa, Welles, Visconti, Ray, many members of the French New Wave (Godard,
Traffaut, Resnais etc.), Schrader, Altman, Wenders, Leigh and many others.
Emerging from the age of French Poetic Realism, Renoir offered the world 2
precious gifts – the first, ‘The Grand Illusion’ (1937), which I have discussed
some months ago; and the second, which is the subject of this article, a film
widely considered as one of the greatest in the history of cinema – ‘The Rules
of the Game’ (1939)!
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| Jean Renoir (1894-1979) |
The story of ‘The Rules of the Game’ is just as inspiring as
the plot in the film. The film was shown in 1939, at a time where Europe knew that it was heading towards a big brawl –
known as the World War II. People were certainly not having the most optimistic
outlooks on life, and we could understand why this film was seen as
controversial when it was first released theatrically. Challenging the many
assumptions and customs of the French culture, ‘The Rules of the Game’ was a
‘Big Bang’ sort of film, it was a film that set the boundary of ‘before’ and ‘after’.
Of course, much audience could not at once appreciate the genius behind this
film, and the reviews were extremely negative, at one point a viewer was so
angry that he attempted to start a fire in the cinema by lighting up the
newspaper he was holding! The film was heavily cut in order to save the day,
but that only led to an even more confusing storyline and nasty criticisms
prevailed. Soon, censor started to target this film, saying the content of the
film as ‘demoralizing’ – that suggested bad for the young ones! Renoir was
distressed by all this, and he was so ashamed that he left Paris for good. Thereafter, it was the WWII,
and many believed that the negatives for the film were destroyed during the
war, so this film was lost in history. Fortunately, it proved to be not the
case. A few years after the war, some film archivists discovered boxes of
negatives for the film, and so they undertook the task of re-assembling the
film back to its complete form. This film was re-released in the 1950s, and by
then everyone realized that what they have got was probably the greatest film
that has ever come out from film art! ‘The Rules of The Game’ becomes the only
film that is on the critics’ Top 10 list of ‘Sight and Sound’ Magazine for all
7 times, and it came out #2 for a consecutive 3 times, only below Welles’
‘Citizen Kane’. So when you are misunderstood by your peers, don't feel despair. Maybe, your ideas are just too ahead of your time!
This film has inspired so many subsequent filmmakers, and 2
examples are obvious. The first one was Orson Welles, who was highly inspired
by Renoir’s style, and it was quite possible that the style of ‘The Rules of
the Game’ had a direct influence on ‘Citizen Kane’ (although this could not be
verified). ‘Citizen Kane’ could be seen
as a ‘cousin’ of ‘The Rules of the Game’, because Renoir and Welles admired
each other (and both influenced by von Stroheim), and both films shared similar
style and themes. The second one is a modern master –Robert Altman. He has
stated he is highly influenced by Renoir, with his use of ensemble cast (which
was a great aspect of ‘The Rules of the Game’), naturalistic style, so
evidenced in MASH, Nashville ,
and Short Cuts etc. Indeed, his film ‘Gosford Park
The story concerned André, a world-acclaimed pilot, who has
just broken world record of a trans-Atlantic flight. While an impressive feat
has been achieved, he was not a happy man. Because his close friend Octave
(played by Renoir himself) informed him that his Platonic subject - Christine -
did not come to see him. Agonized, he staged a massive rant over the radio
interview, which amazed Christine, who was at home with his husband, a noble
called Robert. Just like any dramatic tales, Robert had a mistress of course -
Geneviève, and Chirstine had a maid, Lisette, who was married to an Alsatian
Schumacher. The number of characters was piling up, but one thing for sure -
there was a vacuum between the husband-and-wife team, Christine and Robert.
Robert realized that he had to commit to his responsibility as Christine's
spouse, and before he settled the score with Geneviève, he decided to bring it
to a grand finale - he organized a weekend hunting party at his country-side
chateau. And by the way, André was also invited.
Everyone arrived at the chateau, and things started
fine. Schumacher looked out for the
rabbits in the grounds, but he caught something 'extra' - an illegal poacher
named Marceau, who had an interest in slaying rabbits. Robert was okay with
that, so he was employed as a servant and joined the gang. But as soon as
Marceau came, he set his eyes on Lisette, Schumacher's wife. After a chaotic
hunting, a masquerade ball took place in the evening, and everyone had to dress
up. But when faces were hidden and facades were emerged, the night started to spiral
out of control. André and Robert came to blows with each other over Christine,
and André even planned to run away with Christine. Schumacher found Marceau
flirting with Lisette and chased him around. Octave started to appreciate his
own passion for Christine, and after escorting her to a green house far away,
he contemplated running away with her. Unfortunately, Schumacher eyed this, and
what was worse, he has mistaken Christine as Lisette, because Lisette has
offered her cape to her mistress at that point. One further dose to the tragic
flaw - Octave asked Christine to stay in the greenhouse and then asked André to
meet her there! Now with a fit of rage, Schumacher was more than ready to slay
the one who would steal his love! This time, he mistook André as Octave, who he
believed was the culprit of this crime of passion, and killed André with a
shot. A sudden tragedy surprised everyone, and Robert decided to cover up all
these ugly facts by stating this as a mere accident. While it seemed that
everyone has achieved a peace of mind from this lie - the big question is - has
these people understood more from each other from all these incidents?
Completing the circle
Renoir was an auteur, not a technician. He showed his ideas
in his films, which were complemented by sophisticated techniques. So to
appreciate Renoir's genius, one has to understand the technique he has employed
to lead to all these. He did not employ the techniques because they sounded
cool, but because those could assist him to deliver his story. Three aspects
were evident, and indeed they could be considered as Renoir's signature style.
Those were his deep focus photography, his dynamic camera style, and his
mise-en-scene. The first two areas will be elaborated this time, while the
third will be withheld until the next one, as it is more related to the theme
if the story.
Renoir was one of the legendary directors who made extensive
use of deep focus photography in his work. Deep focus means photographing all
the characters in sharp focus, independent of his distance from the camera. So,
far and near, everything is in plain view. The photographic style was almost
essential for Renoir s style, as it afforded a sort of naturalism to his work.
To me, the use of deep focus photography serves 3 purposes. The first is relevant
to our case here, while the second and third are more relevant to Orson Welles’
work, which I will discuss in later articles.
1. Holism. It is presenting a world view, a more wholesome look
at human condition, such that the audience will not over identify with any
particular characters, so that sentimentality can be avoided.
2. Dialectic. The fact that the 2 objects are both in sharp
focus , separating by a distance, can
provide a visual tension and almost antagonistic feel to the viewer.
3. Alienation. By shooting a character far away from the
viewer in sharp focus, the viewer can therefore be aware of his presence and
find that the character in question is marginalized by not being groped into
the major action inside the frame.
In The Rules of The Game, Renoir did not want the audience
to identify with any particular characters. He wanted his audience to act as an
observer, to look at his characters at a critical distance, reminiscent of
literary naturalism. That was why he avoided using techniques that would single
out characters and made his audience divert all the focus to that - point of
view shots, zooms, and reverse angle shots - he refused to use any of these. Only
by using a holistic camera composition, he could be able to complete the
circle.
His mobile camera style was also extremely iconic, and could
be compared to that of Ophuls and Mizoguchi. By the action of a dynamic camera,
especially in the second half, he has established a complex, yet realistic, spatio-temporal
dimension. Events unfolded and overlapped through the corridors, the ball
rooms, the kitchen and outside, and they fed into each other through various
connections. The result was a naturalistic style that no one single event dominated
the plot, but countless actions that drove the plot forward in cinematic time.
A final point is Renoir’s use of naturalistic sound. In The
Grand Illusion, many actions were defined by a framing device there were
actions in a room and there were actions outside, separated by, for example, a
door or a window. While the actions inside was photographed in focus, Renoir
completed the circle by including sound from the outside, completing his enclosed
cinematic universe. In ‘The Rules of The Game’, this was also employed. While
the first few scenes took place in a number of places, the radio show of Andre’s
interview could be heard all though, constructing a naturalistic continuity of
events. Therefore, Renoir not only used deep focus to create a unique and
holistic human universe, he also used other great techniques to establish a realism
for his world.
With all these ingenious stylistic elements, 'The Rules of
The Game ' stands proudly at the apex of cinematic Naturalism.
(1/2)
By Ed Law
30/5/2015
Film Analysis - 44
