“I dream of uncompromising realism.”
—Renoir
Renoir in La Grande Illusion, as well as in his later film Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu, 1939), was greatly influenced by, and part of, a larger movement of poetic realism in film. Poetic realism focuses on naturalness so that everything flows inevitably. This style of film favors unstaged reality and is concerned more with what is being shown that how it is cinematically being manipulated. By using natural light, on-location filming when possible, long tracking that just followed the natural action, non-diegetic sounds, and careful character development that was more impromptu than rehearsed, this open form style created a realism that was designed to be a mirror of the real world. Renoir was such a devoted fan of this style that Gabin (Maréchal) actually wore Renoir’s own aviator jacket in the film.
A comparison of poetic realism in Renoir’s Rules of the Game and La Grande Illusion can be seen below.
–And-
We can see that Renoir employs many of these same cinematic techniques in his later film Rules of the Game.
-And-
Sources consulted: Macdonald, 158; Jackson, 14-15 and 35-41. The quote may be found in Jackson, 30.
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