France: Poetic Realism, Jean Renoir, and the Popular Front 1930s Lecture 21

Mode of Production: How does the decentralized structure explain the quality of French filmmaking? Companies were competing rather than cooperating Small film companies – 285 small film companies made 1 film apiece – Largest company made 64 films throughout the decade (c.f. to Paramount: 64 films yearly) – Restricted division of labor (fewer people to do the more jobs) – More directorial control

Poetic Realism, mid-1930s Not a unified movement, a tendency Moody, romantic, atmospheric, pessimistic Featuring socially marginal characters (realism) who face tragic ends (poetic) Paul Rotha: “[These films] all focused on the individual against a background of poverty, crime, and violence…These misty waterfronts and low dives were excellently rendered and photographed, but their ‘life’ was a subjective one…Beautifully made, sensitively acted, they were films of defeat…” (quoted in Andrew 11) Three directors: – Marcel Carné: Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows, 1938) – Julien Duviver: Pépé le Moko (1936) – Jean Renoir: Toni (1935), La Bête humanine (1938)

J EAN R ENOIR : T HE G RAND I LLUSION Auteurist approach – Triumph of the “cinematic” over the script Long take Average Shot Length (ASL) Mobile camera Deep focus – Biography (ex: membership in the Communist Party) Contextualist approach – Relation to the Popular Front – Methods of collaboration and improvisation – Reworkings of the script (by Charles Spaak)

J EAN R ENOIR : D EEP F OCUS

Popular Front, Depression Pre-1934: leftist parties did not cooperate (esp. French Communist Party-PCF) – Stalin changed positions in 1934: national unity against fascism more important than revolution 1936: Popular Front won legislative elections – Government formed under Léon Blum (French Section of the Workers’ International—SFIO) – PCF cooperated with non-working class groups – Embrace on left of national symbols Collapse of Popular Front – Disagreement over pacifism: to fight fascism abroad or not? – PCF: against compromise with Hitler (Munich Agreement)

Grand Illusion: A tension? ‘Vertical’ frontiers of nation less important than ‘horizontal’ frontiers of class A ND The film aims to reject the idea that “everything which is national (‘La Marseillaise,’ the Unknown Soldier, in this case prisoners of war) belongs exclusively to the fascists.” (Jackson 80) A ND Boeldieu and von Raffenstein: heroes of the film? Did “Renoir the artist prevail over Renoir the ideologue”? (79)

F RONTIERS OF NATION ( VERTICAL ) AND CLASS ( HORIZONTAL )