This image shows two enemies who actually share a great deal of admiration for one another which is symbolically shown as they frame the rose in the center of the shot. This is highly relevant to the story line because when Captain Boeldieu dies Captain von Rauffenstein cuts the rose which demonstrates the love they have for one another. The rose, according to mise en scene, is a subsidiary contrast because once you’ve taken in the dominant elements, being Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein, the eye is then attracted to the middle ground which they frame and that is where the rose lies.
I believe that Renoir suggests with this shot that despite strong national ties, Europe as a whole is moving towards a more trans-national movement, where being European, as a race or simply group of people, is equally meaningful if not more than local relevance. Aligning with this idea in the plot line, Merechal (who’s French) ends up falling in love with a German lady, Elsa.
This shot at first seems closed because it is framed tightly around the subjects, however the window opens it up once you look at it a little longer, I believe this would also suggest the gravity of their current situation, World War I, while opening the door (or window, in this situation) to the possibility of a bright future for Europeans as a whole. The equal division of the composition of the shot symbolic portrays the equality of the characters and situation, granted Rauffenstein is sitting and Boeldieu is standing, but it is a reversal of their current roles as Captain and prisoner (European equality anyone?).
A number of good points here, Craig. It's actually a gardenia, not a rose. But in any case, it's interesting that you suggest that WWI opens the way to a bright future, as in many portrayals it seems to do anything but. It wiped out most of a generation of European men, which Renoir could not have forgotten. But I wonder if your sense of its hopefulness here is encouraged by the film's optimism? Do you see it as optimistic? Your reading of the trans-nationalism is good, though I'd also suggest that this isn't just something created by the war, but that the film seems to suggest was in place before it. Note how easily the character's are able to speak several common languages. So maybe it's the war itself that's a perversion of Renoir's sense of European commonality?
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