Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 110

found Gregor's performance to be ‘as haunting and bewitching as a plastic giraffe.’ During production, Jay told Renoir he hated his performance as Octave. Renoir offered to replace himself with Michel Simon, but Jay refused because two-thirds of the film had already been shot. Jay asked Renoir to instead remove Octave's scenes, which had not yet been shot. Renoir refused, and throughout shooting he added new scenes for Octave. Shooting in Joinville finally wrapped in May 1939. The film was over schedule and the rented soundstage was needed for other films. Renoir originally wanted to release the film in June because the potential war would make a post-summer release impossible.

Renoir continued shooting additional scenes with some of the actors. The opening scene at the airfield was shot in mid-June at the Bourget Airport in the middle of the night with whatever extras they could find. Renoir almost ran out of money when he filmed the car crash scene, which was shot very quickly with Alain Renoir as the camera operator. Renoir never liked the scene and initially removed it. The principal photography was nine and a half weeks over schedule when it finally wrapped in June.

Despite beginning the shoot in love with Gregor, Renoir's infatuation remained unrequited. During the film's production, he ended his relationship with Marguerite and began another with