Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 123

critic David Thomson said ‘One has the impression of a camera that is always moving to cover as much as possible. One does not notice cuts, one delights in a continuity which is often on the verge of chaos and finally leads to tragedy in the intrusion of subplot into plot, of the theatrical into the real and of disaster into balances.’

Renoir used few close-ups or reverse shots and most of the shots are two shots. The hunt scene differs from the rest of the film. It uses rapid editing whereas most of the film uses long takes of dialogue or action. Renoir wanted to shoot the film in color to take advantage of the beauty of Sologne in the winter but he was unable to secure funding from Jean Jay. One week before filming began Renoir tried to persuade Technicolor to fund the color cinematography but the company refused.

The sound in the film was complex for its time. It included dialogue spoken over ambient noises such as crowds at the airport and gunfire during the hunt. Film director Jean Prat said the film's soundtrack was ‘of a perfection never equaled by any French film.’ Characters often talk at once or talk over each other's lines. One example of the dense soundtrack is the party scene, which includes dialogue over screams, gunfire and music. Except for the opening credits and the very end of the film, all of the music heard in the film is incidental. The