Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 108

The cast and crew however, admired Renoir and enjoyed the carefree atmosphere on set, forgetting about the impending political situation. The cast's improvisations caused some changes from the original script. Christine was initially written as a bored, upper class bourgeois whose main preoccupation was planning parties, but Renoir amended this to accommodate Gregor's acting. Renoir also cut most of the references to Christine's conductor father Stiller, such as his relationship with the Marquis. The Marquis was initially written as a patron of the arts and music instead of a collector of music boxes.

Journalists often visited the set and wrote positively about the production. The film was shot almost chronologically in Sologne and again in Joinville, Val-de-Marne, which Renoir considered important for the actors' performances. Renoir said he did not need to do much directing since the actors were so involved in their roles. When directing himself, Renoir arranged the performers movements first then acted in the scenes. Jay pushed Renoir to finish filming in Sologne and move the production to sets erected at the Pathé studios in Joinville. Renoir finally agreed and left Zwoboda, Corteggiani and Cartier-Bresson in Sologne to shoot B-roll footage of the rabbit hunting sequence.