Reconsidering Jean Renoir’s La Marseillaise through editor Marguerite Renoir

Abstract

ABSTRACT Director Jean Renoir’s 1930s films are considered some of the most influential in film history. However, little is known about Renoir’s team of collaborators who helped to realise these ground-breaking, politically engaged films. This study considers the role of Renoir’s long-time editor during this period, Marguerite Renoir. Through an examination of Jean Renoir’s personal letters from and an original shooting script from assistant director Marc Maurette, the author establishes Marguerite Renoir’s crucial role in creating Jean Renoir’s La Marseillaise(1938). Marrying this archival research with a close reading of a scene from the film, she reveals how additional shifts in point of view can be attributed to the editor, ultimately claiming that representing the social body and a collective filmmaking process are deeply intertwined in La Marseillaise. At the time of writing, this is the first study to focus exclusively on Marguerite Renoir’s unique contributions to this film.