Juan Monroy — Early Film: France in the 1930s

1 Depression Years
- 1.1 European Fascism
  - Italy
  - Germany
  - Spain
- 1.2 French industry hit hard by the Depression
  - Production sector was very fragmented
  - Some companies would produce only one film but then failed
  - Overall production was very poor
2 Fantasy and Surrealism
- 2.1 tendency continued from the silent era
- 2.2 present in filmmakers such as Rene Clair and Jean Vigo
- 2.3 distinguished from filmmaking in Hollywood and throughout Europe
3 Rene Clair
- 3.1 Le Million
  - musical film
  - winning lottery ticket that’s lost in a jacket
  - surrealists influences including the relationship between sound and image
4 Jean Vigo
- 4.1 surrealist tendencies
- 4.2 made only four films before his death at age 29
- 4.3 A Propos de Nice (1930)
- 4.4 Taris (1931)
- 4.5 L’Atalante (1934)
- 4.6 Zero for Conduct (1933)
5 Poetic Realism
- 5.1 Qualities of Poetic Realism
  - Doomed Characters
    - often starred Jean Gabin
- 5.2 contemporary scenarios
  - often urban settings
  - set in present day or recent past
  - realist mise-en-scène
- 5.3 gritty realism
  - crime was common
  - shadowy figures and lighting
  - realist cinematography
- 5.4 Le Jour Se Leve (Marcel Carné, 1939)
  - Francois kills Valentin
  - locks himself in a room
  - flashbacks
    - in love with flower shop girl Françoise and Carla
    - Valentin becomes jealous of his relationship with the women
    - Valentin threatens him
    - Francois shoots him
    - film ends with police at his door
      - Police gas his room
      - Francois despairs and kills himself
      - Francois’s body surrounded by the gas filling the room
- 5.5 Pepe Le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1936)
  - Pepe is a gangster hiding in the casbah of Algiers
  - mise-en-scene plays a key role, where Pepe gets lost
  - cinematography highlights the exotic locale
  - anticipates film noir movement
6 Jean Renoir
- 6.1 son of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir
- 6.2 most celebrated filmmaker of the pre-World War II era
- 6.3 Crime of Mr. Lange (1936)
  - influenced by Popular Front movement
  - M. Lange works at a publishing company
  - form a collective after the death of Batala
  - Lange publishes his stories
  - Batala returns from the dead and Lange kills him
  - Lange and Valentine go on the lam
- 6.4 La Grande Illusion (1937)
  - World War I film
  - critical of warfare
  - two French aviators are shot down by Germans
  - held captive
  - try to escape and chased by Germans
  - the men manage to cross the border to Switzerland and are let go
  - shows the triumph of humanity that transcends war loyalties
- 6.5 La Marseillese (1938)
  - depiction of the French Revolutions
  - different perspectives
    - citizens of Marseille
    - German aristocrats
    - King Louis XVI
- 6.6 Rules of the Game (1939)
  - perhaps Renoir’s greatest film but poorest commercial success
  - depicts parallels between aristocracy and the servants
  - tangled love, lots of infidelity and unrequited love
  - innovation: the long take and the deep focus
7 World War II
- 7.1 France entered the War in 1939
- 7.2 War stopped most film production
- 7.3 German forces occupied France in 1940
- 7.4 Right-wing government established in Vichy
- 7.5 Most filmmakers went into hiding or exile
- 7.6 Some filmmakers remained made films under the Vichy Government