Formal Analysis

      Medium shot of the English prisoners rehearsing a musical number; tracking backwards, then a descriptive pan to the left revealing other prisoners busy preparing the show. Another tracking backwards to frame in a medium shot the French prisoners watching their guard “Arthur” search a box of costumes which have just arrived. Cut. Near shot of the French prisoners examining and discussing the female clothes in the box. Slight pan to the left to frame Maisonnneuve in a near shot: Maréchal asks him to try on one of the dresses to see what it looks like. Slight pan in the opposite direction following Maisonneuve as he leaves with the dress. Cut. Near shot of the group from behind. Slight pan to meet Maisonneuve who comes back wearing the dress and a woman’s wig; slight tracking backwards to frame the whole group, which has fallen silent, in a medium shot. Maisonneuve comments, “It feels funny.” Cut. Near shot of a prisoner on a ladder, followed by a pan downwards and to the left to reveal several other prisoners in a near shot, staring at Maisonneuve in absolute silence. The pan continues until Maisonneuve is framed again, this time in a long shot in the middle of the recreation room in deep focus, surrounded by the other prisoners who stare at him speechless. Fade to black.

Commentary

     We have here a long sequence very typical of Renoir’s style, including a long sequence shot followed by a series of shots simply cut together but filled with all kinds of camera movements to avoid a further proliferation of shots. The first shot establishes in its totality the space of the recreation hall: no segmentation, but rather a series of camera movements — tracking shots and pans — which reveal the variety of activities in preparation for the prisoner’s show. The second shot, a near shot, is static at first to focus the attention of the spectators on the dialogue, the discussion of the female garments. It ends with two short pans to introduce Maisonneuve and then to accompany his departure to put on the women’s garb. The third shot, static again, with the exception of a backwards tracking of the camera at the beginning to move from the extreme near shot to a simple near shot, focuses on the discussion of women’s fashions in France and the clothes in the box. Cut.

     In the following shot Maisonneuve’s arrival in drag is met by a pan, as if the camera were going to meet him, followed by a tracking backwards to reframe the whole group in a medium shot to focus attention on the men’s reaction to Maisonneuve’s cross-dressing: everyone falls silent and stares. The abrupt cut which introduces the last shot expresses the shock the prisoners experience as they stare at this “woman” before them. The stark silence of the shot (produced by an unrecorded segment of the soundtrack), which lasts until Maisonneuve speaks at the end of the sequence, combined with the long pan on the faces of the men, depicts powerfully the state of mind of these prisoners who have been deprived of the company of women; they are transfixed by this image of a woman that brings back memories and desires.

     The pan ends with the long shot which concentrates all of the gazes on Maisonneuve, in deep focus, emphasizing the totality of the space and, by the same token, the whole community of men frozen in a dream state produced by the sudden apparition of a “woman” in their midst. The fade to black at the end of the sequence only serves to accentuate the impression of a dream state.