Formal Analysis     

     Renoir begins his film with a high angle close-up shot of a record player on which a record is revolving, followed by a pan upwards to frame Lieutenant Maréchal in a near shot. The camera then pans towards the right to follow Maréchal in a long shot when he walks towards the bar to speak to another soldier. We see at the same time, in deep focus, other officers chatting and drinking at tables.

     The camera stops a moment while Maréchal leaves the frame on the left and Captain Ringis enters the room by the door in the back on the right — at the very moment that Maréchal’s friend leaves by the same door. A new pan in the opposite direction accompanies the captain, framed in a medium shot, towards the left until he reaches Maréchal standing in front of the record player. The two players are now framed in a near shot. A final pan in a long shot follows the two men as they walk towards the door at the right of the frame.

     Renoir uses a simple cut to the second shot in this sequence. The camera picks the two men up in a medium shot as they walk out the door and disappear. The camera pans immediately back to the left to frame momentarily the barman in a near shot before panning downwards and stopping in a close-up of a large sign on the bar which reads, “Alcohol kills — Alcohol drives men crazy — The squadron leader imbibes.”

Commentary

     We notice immediately that Renoir refuses to respect conventions in his filming style. Traditionally, a film begins with an establishing shot, followed commonly by a very long shot, then a long shot. The near shots and close-ups come later when the place of the action has been well established. Renoir does the opposite: he begins by a close-up on a record which is playing a popular tune, “Frou, Frou.” The tune informs us immediately of the tastes, and therefore the social status, of Maréchal, who (as we will soon learn) belongs to the laboring class. This impression is confirmed by his sloppy uniform which we see when the pan reveals him in a near shot. This shot prepares the contrast with the impeccable dress of the aristocratic career officer, Captain de Boëldieu, whom we will meet in the third shot of the film. The next pan, which accompanies Maréchal when he moves away toward the back of the room, framed in a long shot, places the character in his physical and social context: the officers’ mess. When Captain Ringis comes looking for him, walking up from the back of the room, a pan follows him up to Maréchal, maintaining the unity of the space in which the action is placed. The mention of “Joséphine,” the woman with whom Maréchal has a date in town (and he’s not the only one who is going out with her…), in the course of their conversation completes the depiction of him as a member of the lower classes.

     Generally speaking, by utilizing camera movements combined with depth of field, instead of segmenting the first scene into several shots, Renoir is emphasizing the unity of the Maréchal character with his environment. Despite the beginning of a new shot at the end of this short sequence, we are witnessing, from the very beginning of the film, a typical example of Renoir’s style, in which the mise-en-scène (staging) is favored over the editing of shots together.