Read the following quote from Roger Ebert and choose a scene that displays deep focus and analyze for frame composition.
"Much has been made of the deep focus in "Citizen Kane" -- the use of lighting and lenses to allow the audience to observe action in both the front and back of deep spaces. "The Rules of the Game" is no less virtuoso, and perhaps inspired Welles. Renoir allows characters to come and go in the foreground, middle distance and background, sometimes disappearing in the distance and reappearing in closeup. Attentive viewing shows that all the actors are acting all of the time, that subplots are advancing in scarcely noticeable ways in the background while important action takes place closer to the camera."
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ReplyDeleteRenoir used every corner of the space within his frame, filling the fore, middle, and background with activity. He staged scenes where the viewer's attention moves from the foreground to the background, either by the placement of the characters or by some directional visual device like the checkered flooring that recedes into the distance. He does all of this while still keeping everything onscreen in focus and “alive” so to speak. Alive as in there is something always going on in the foreground middle and background and if not, there is still attention drawn to it. In the scene where Lisette and the general are sitting at the table in the kitchen and Lisette is trying to distract the general while her lover, the shoe polisher, tries to sneak out the back, this use of deep focus is used. In the foreground we have the general and Lisette talking as the main action going on, but we are drawn into the middle ground with the shoe polisher as he tries to sneak away without making noise. Even though nothing is in the background, we are still drawn to it because of the receding checkered floors that less us know this space is still relevant. This is correct when the shoe polisher ends up making noise and the general begins to chase him back and forth between the middle and background as Lisette and us, the viewer, are still watching from the foreground. This deep focus worked with the framing in this scene. The corridors are small and arched and with the checkered floors that make the kitchen look endless and deep, it helped emphasize the shoe polishers feeling of being trapped in the chase with the general that we feel as a viewer as well.
ReplyDeleteRenior manipulates space and focus in "The Rules of the Game", much like Welles did later in "Citizen Kane", to advance the plot, themes, and development of characters. In the scene when Robert de la Chesnaye is walking from his room to another in his Paris home, we see the perfect example of this deep focus. As he walks through the door away from Octave, he is at the end of the hallway, furthest away from us, yet everything clearly is drawn towards him. As he struts down in his bathrobe, servants flock to his side to ask about "Madame", or what "His Lordship'" needs. As he continues down the hallway in the middle third of the vertical framing lines (rule of thirds), it is clear he is a man who is constantly attended to and he has never had a difficult moment in his life, everything has been easy and his needs have always been catered to. This characterization of high class ignorance just before WWII is specifically what raised so much controversy about the film in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIn the midst of his walk, in the middle ground of the shot, he looses a screw to one of his mechanical toys and immediately stops to search for it. This throws the surrounding servants into a frenzy, displaying their willingness to serve their boss. The fact that he never reaches the foreground may be metaphoric for his inability to reach a fully developed personality due to his frivolity. Yet Lisette skates from the foreground to the background with her tray of food for Octave. Here, Renior cleverly grabs the audiences attention and transitions settings from the distress in the hallway to the playful atmosphere of the room which Lisette walks into. This transition to a room which contains a high society man and a serving woman flirting is the example of the theme Renoir plays around with in the metaphoric and literal background of the film: "a superficial form of a country house farce, at which wives and husbands, lovers and adulterers, masters and servants, sneak down hallways, pop up in each other's bedrooms and pretend that they are all proper representatives of a well-ordered society", as put by Roger Ebert.
Renoir’s use of deep focus in his meticulously crafted creation, “Rules of the Game,” is no less a parallel to the title, than an outrageously exceptional execution of the cinematic element. It is important to discuss the use of deep focus to insinuate the deeper realms to the film, that faint implicit idea that the unattainable still drives us, even when defeat snarls and flaunts its horns-speaking therefore, to the human condition. This is furthermore evident in Roberts continued aspiration to acquire fully functioning mechanical dolls-which is, not to mention, one of the earliest examples of sci-fi undertones in a movie.
ReplyDeleteWhen deep focus is utilized we must take into account the mis en scene. Addressing specifically the scene where people are gathered in the hallways, and everything seems awry, we notice that without the harsh contrast between the black and white floor tiles, the deep focus would not have cast forth as much a jolting response as it did. In addition we can look to the scene where everyone has gathered for dinner. We begin with a shot of the chefs in the foreground, and people moving about in the background behind them. We move to a long shot of a table, Christine focused at the far end, everyone up to the foreground also in the shot however Christine is still the center of attention. In continuation, we switch again to a different angle of the table, where we can now see the same chefs that we left on a shot where they were in the foreground, in the background as they move to the front and thus gain more relevance.
Renoir uses deep focus and meaning to explain the implicit meaning between the upper class and the working class just before WW2. When watching The Rules of the Game, I’ve noticed that Renoir explicitly and implicitly used lighting to use deep focus and the use meaning. One scene I choose that uses this, is when the security guard is shown chasing one of the main characters throughout the mansion disappearing in the foreground and reappearing.While this is going on, other characters are either shown talking or fighting amongst other people while those same people are shown running in the background and the middleground. These shots also exposes low-key lighting and occasional high-key lighting to give an implicit meaning about on what the character’s intentions are. Such as when the characters are actually fighting, it gives a low-key lighting for the characters are arguing over a dispute with the love of their lives. The open doors that reveals long corridors or hallways are also given a claustrophobic feeling but yet is given space for the viewer to experience and see what is going on in the composition of the frame.
ReplyDeleteOrson Welles took inspiration of the use of the deep focus technique in his groundbreaking film “Citizen Kane”. Where there was multiple characters all in the same frame appearing in and out all in the same composition. Jean Renoir also uses deep focus in that same scene to express the character’s state of mind, such as like I said before, when the long hallways and corridors give a claustrophobic feeling while it gives the audience a chance to view all of the characters in one frame, give that meaning of the character’s closed mindedness at the first 5 minutes of the scene, but as the scene goes on, the frame becomes more open and hallways become much larger in comparison, which means that the characters are starting to “clear” their judgment and put their settlements aside.
In "The Rules of the Game" we can see very early on Renoir's use of deep focus. In an early scene we see Christine in the foreground conversing with a woman while in the background, guests enter the estate, escaping the rain outside, entering the frame through an open doorway. Through the very same doorway André Jurieux appears as an unexpected gust with the intention of approaching Christine. In this very same scene we see deep focus used again after Jurieux approaches Christine, from the opposite angle we see the characters in the foreground, while the host, Robert, finally appears entering the frame from another doorway in the background. All the while other guests are entering the frame into the foreground for greeting. Through this technique Renoir expertly creates a sense of a living breathing world depicted in the frame.
ReplyDeleteDeep focus is manipulated in “The Rules of the Game” similarly to “Citizen Kane”. In the earlier scenes, Renoir used deep-focus shots to place his actors in the background, dwarfing them with the trappings of luxury in the foreground — glass crystal, or extremely nice vases. Here he surrounds them with young oak trees. Black-and-white photography limits the impact of the outdoor shots, but in these and other scenes he gives a glimpse of a natural world where we can see birds, rabbits, and squirrels. Also in another scene, when André arrives we get another feel for deep focus. Christine, both daring and naive, seizes the occasion to preempt the gossips, announcing that she had a “small role” to play in André’s triumph. When he was planning his great flight, the young man came to visit her, “many times” to sit at her feet and share his dreams. While she speaks, Robert and Octave fidget in the background. Renoir’s now familiar deep focus allowing us to follow two stories at once, sometimes contrasting, sometimes complementing one another through these elements of deep focus.
ReplyDeleteWith Renoir's use of deep-focus in "The Rules of the Game", he set in motion a technique that is now used on a daily basis in almost, if not all films. One of the scenes that shows great skill in the use of deep focus is the chase scene where Marceau is being chased by Edouard and they run through the huge house. Many shots were taken through a doorway as the viewers see the two running around in farther back with maybe a few people in the forefront calmly talking to show contrast between the two actions. The audience is also given a great view of the characters' reactions to such a disturbance going on around them. Because of the juxtaposition between what's going on in the forefront compared to the background, the audience gets a feel for how ridiculous the situation really is. Since there is so much going on in the scene and the shots are fairly short, the audience is thrown into the chaos and get the full experience of it.
ReplyDeleteDeep focus is used masterfully in “The Rules of the Game”. The use of deep focus in this film could have possibly influenced Orson Welles in his creation of “Citizen Kane”. In the film, Renoir uses the outdoors to his aid in the creation of deep focus by incorporating shrubbery, various animals (birds, squirrels, rabbits), and the actual characters in the foreground with the landscape in the background. In addition, Renoir uses the luxury life atmosphere to his advantage by surrounding his characters with expensive furniture, placing them in the middleground and background. Lastly, when Andre arrives at the mansion, Christine starts to speak about her role in Andre’s success. While this is happening, both Octave (I hope that’s his name?) and Robert are scuttling around behind them. This use of deep focus in such a proficient and smooth manner allows the viewers to follow two separate stories simultaneously. This use of deep focus was one of the most impactful. Therefore, it is not outrageous to suggest that Orson Welles could have possibly been influenced by Renoir and even learned some essential deep focus techniques from his films.
ReplyDeleteAlfonzo Mancuso
ReplyDeleteDeep focus is a huge part of jean Renoir’s “Rules of The Game”, just as it is in “Citizen Kane”. A strong example of this is in some of the beginning scenes because this is where Renoir has his characters in the background, while in the foreground, the shot is shrouded in different kinds of expensive objects such as expensive glasses and plates or different kinds of decorations like table-pieces of vases. When it comes to the shots that were taken outside, the black and white color of the film really affects the how the film feels on the audience because it makes it feel as if they’re could be more but its just not reaching the limits that it could. He also shows some shots of the outdoors and in these shots we are given a view on the natural life/wildlife which includes animals such as birds and squirrels and such. In one of the scenes we have Lisette trying to draw away the general’s attention so he focuses on her. She does this so her real lover can get away out of the back, this is a scene where deep focus is used. I chose this scene because when the general and Lisette are talking, and this is clearly suppose to be the main topic going on at that moment but soon after, the audiences attention is drawn toward the middle. The attention is drawn to the middle because here we have Lisette’s lover trying to sneak away without getting caught and without making a sound. The pattern on the floor also plays a big role in this scene because even though we are given nothing in the background to focus on, we know that space is still a very important aspect of the scene.
A scene that exhibits deep focus in the Rules of the Game is the hunting scene. There is a fixation on the wildlife and on how their life comes to an end. The scene creates a metaphor for the rich and poor. The scene begins with the line of hunters marching through the forest. The hunters are all part of the upper class. The trees of the forest cloud the frame and allow the hunters to sneak across the frame. The shots of the hunters were intercut with the shots of wildlife scurrying across the ground around the forest. There is deep focus on the small animals as they try to flee. All of the shots of the animals are close-up and tracking shots. This is where the metaphor for the rich and the poor begins. The rich hunters are lined up along the outside of the forest waiting for their workers to draw the animals out. As soon as the animals come into the field there is a montage of the hunters killing several animals without a care. The hunters seem to not care for the lives of the animals. The metaphor is created by the representation of different classes. The high class are represented by the hunters who stand and wait with their rifles. The middle class are the people who draw the animals out who work for the hunters. The animals are the low class and are killed by the high class. The whole scene can represent gentrification with its deep focus on the killings. The rich over taking the poor.
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