THE WORLD AS ONE WHOLE: THE SYNTACTIC ROLE OF COLOUR IN FILM JEAN RENOIR greatly admired Marcel Pagnol, but unlike him, he did not believe "that everything was in dialogue". As a film-maker Renoir sought to combine the disparate elements that make up a film, each finding its own place in the grand scheme. He said that in a given situation, say a love-scene when two adoring actors approach one another, "dialogue is a part of the theme and reveals character" but the true weight of emotions are carried by other, non-verbal factors, mostly those revealed in close ups. Moreover, the real theme in this example (of a love-scene), is the person. Dialogue, texture, picture, situation, setting, temperature and lighting all combine together to depict the person, since, as he puts it, "the world is one whole".(1) There is something uncanny about Renoir when he philosophizes. Like his...
