Analysis Of Jean Renoir And Le Crime De Monsieur Lange

Jean Renoir, a symbol of times, and a name that has always been shining in the cinematic history. As a pioneer of French poetic realism, Renoir combined his concerns about the people living at the bottom of the society with social reality, and skillfully recreated them through films. After the great success in early 1930s, Renoir responded to the call of the Popular Front. In this time background, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange reflects the movement’s left-wing political inclination. This 1936 film narrates the conflict between the lower-level class people and a voracious entrepreneur trying to oppress them. Nevertheless, compared to the title, the main ideas of this film are unity and class struggle; while the crime is just the factor used to

Hulot, after the three gentlemen help him repair and push his car, Monsieur Hulot walks back and sincerely expresses his gratitude. Although their behaviors trigger a series of funny ripple effects which mislead other participants of the funeral to begin shaking hands, in this scene, Tati tells audiences that “anti-establishment stance” is not to simply oppose all the established rules, but to cautiously decide which rules should be objected. Thus, Monsieur Hulot may indeed stand outside most of the social conventions, but he still respects virtue ethics.

Moreover, in regard to content, both films depict conflicts between people. In Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, the conflicts between lower-level class people and the entrepreneur are so sharp that the struggle can only be ended by the death of one side. Besides, the conflict between Lange and Batala is even more complex. As the film approaches to its climax when the entrepreneur demands for the return of the publishing cooperative’s ownership, and harasses Lange’s girlfriend Valentine, Lange angrily shoots

In Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, when Estelle comes to Batala’s office to return his clothes, but is harassed by the shameless entrepreneur, the sharp timbre of violin effectively delivers a sense of tension to audiences.

On the contrary, in Les Vacances de M. Hulot, Tati used various rhythms of the same melody to express a pleasant holiday atmosphere: the cheerful soundtrack and those tourists who cannot truly relax themselves form a sharp contrast.

Jean Renoir’s greatness is reflected in his concerns about the people living at the bottom of society. Nonetheless, instead of directly depicting them, sometimes he cleverly used the images of the upper-level class people to indirectly reflect them. For instance, as one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, La Règle du jeu in 1938 depicts the moral affectation and callousness of the upper-class French society at that age. In the story, even though Jurieux is invited to La Colinière, he does not belong to the upper-class. Ironically, Schumacher, the gamekeeper who shoots Jurieux to death, is also from the underclass society. Although the manslaughter happens between two men of the underclass society, it is the rules of the upper-class society the culprit of tragedy. On the surface, no one is accused to commit the murder. Nevertheless, what most horrible is this silent kill, and it is done by the upper-class people’s tacit