III.

Filmic Style and Technical Innovations

Renoir was an early admirer of Charlie Chaplin, and it is perhaps appropriate that the special poetry of his work is similarly generated from gesture and movement. Whereas Chaplin’s art at its most characteristic is centred on his own performance, Renoir’s is rooted in the vigorous, sometimes even broad, playing of an ensemble of performers. The action is typically staged in depth, and the kinetic poetry that results is enhanced through carefully choreographed camera movements and sensitive editing. Unlike many directors working during the silent era, Renoir welcomed the coming of sound. In his memoirs, Ma Vie et Mes Films (1974; My Life and My Films), he suggests that the voice is “the most direct expression of a human being’s personality”.

Renoir planned the leading roles in La Chienne (1931) for Catherine Hessling and Michel Simon. His decision not to abandon the project when the studio insisted on casting not his wife but an actress they had under contract caused the final breakdown of his marriage.

In this, his first sound masterpiece, he experimented by shooting some scenes with three cameras, and his use of direct sound recorded on location ensured that the individual drama was played out within its social context (a vibrantly alive Montmartre). He often achieved a comparable effect visually, having sections of the interior sets constructed on location, and shooting through doors or windows. Examples of the latter practice can be seen in such films as Boudu Sauvé des Eaux (1932; Boudu Saved from Drowning), and two from 1938, La Marseillaise and La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast, his second Zola adaptation).