Grand Illusion Excerpt 1: At the French officers’ mess (1’10”)

LaGrandeIllusion01.mp4

Excerpt 1

 Questions

1.

How many shots are there in this excerpt?

2.

What is the dominant technique (camera movement) used here?

3.

Where does Renoir use editing in this excerpt? What type of transition between shots does he use?

4. How many pans are there?
5. Camera angles: Describe the position of the camera at the beginning of this excerpt.
6. Why is the close-up at the beginning of the film surprising?
7. Where does depth of field (deep focus photography) come into play? What role does it generally play in Renoir’s films?
8. To what extent does this excerpt resemble a sequence shot? Why does Renoir prefer sequence shots to editing shots together (montage)?
9. What technique does Renoir often use to highlight the actors? Where do we see an example of this here?
10. How does Renoir construct Maréchal’s character in this scene?

Commentary : Excerpt 1