Formal Analysis

Near shot of a door opened by a German officer who announces the arrival of the two French pilots who have been shot down. Boëldieu and Maréchal enter in a near shot and are greeted by Rauffenstein. The camera tracks slowly backward to frame the French officers for a moment in a long shot, before the whole group moves into a medium shot and then toward the table. Everyone sits down. Cut. Boëldieu and Rauffenstein, framed in a near shot, discuss their common acquaintances in aristocratic circles, exchanging some comments in English. Cut.

         Near shot of Maréchal and the German officer sitting next to him, then a slow tracking to the right combined with a pan to keep Maréchal and the German in the frame. Since the Frenchman has his arm in a sling, the German officer cuts his meat for him. While chatting, they discover that they are both mechanics in civilian life. Cut. A German soldier enters the room carrying a funeral wreath. Cut. Close-up on the ribbon on the wreath, on which we can read an epitaph in French (French pilot “shot down in flames”). Cut. Near shot of Boëldieu and Rauffenstein standing: the commander apologies to his French peer. Everyone sits back down. Fade to black.

Commentary

          In the shot preceding this sequence, we are struck by the fact that the German officers’ mess is very similar to the French mess: the bar covered with bottles, a record player, the table, and on the wall pictures of women--which recalls Maréchal’s date with Joséphine. The Viennese waltz is popular German music, creating a parallel with the popular French song “Frou-Frou” which Maréchal was listening to at the beginning of the film. Renoir thus establishes from the outset a strong parallel between the French and German officers’ messes.

         The parallel is soon developed further as soon as the officer’s have sat down at the table. The camera is going to frame one after the other two “couples,” beginning with Boëldieu and Rauffenstein. By isolating these two officers, by putting them “together,” Renoir is emphasizing their affinity of class, their membership in the European aristocracy. They are both impeccably dressed and have the same haughty, upper-class look. They frequent the same social milieu, know the same people, and have the same culture — which is suggested by their knowledge of English.

         The couple formed by Maréchal and his German tablemate, framed together in the following shot, is clearly set in contrast with the Boëldieu-Rauffenstein couple. Maréchal and the German, both mechanics in civilian life, belong to the working class. By opposing these two couples, Renoir is suggesting that Boëldieu the French aristocrat has much more in common with Rauffenstein the Prussian aristocrat than he does with his countryman Maréchal. This scene serves to illustrate one of Renoir’s favorite themes: “vertical” divisions between people of different nationalities are much less an obstacle than the “horizontal” divisions between social classes in a given country.