Gaston Modot plays a minor role in the ensemble casted film La Regle Du Jeu (1939), he plays the character known as Mr. Schumacher. He is first formally introduced as Schumacher at the beginning of the hunt, although Schumacher is supposed to have an authoritative role of the gamekeeper in the film, it seems that he has a lack of any authority at all. This can be recognized through the first scenes of the hunt, as Schumacher has caught a poacher (Marceau) and brought him to the eyes of the estate owner Robert. In any instance Robert should be proud that Schumacher was doing his job, but instead of ridiculing the poacher, he asks him to join along. This is one example of Schumacher’s lack of authority, as even the man who hired him does not care for his work. Throughout the film Mr. Schumacher’s character role changes from the gamekeeper to the Marceau keeper. Instead of Marceau poaching rabbits, he is trying to Steal Schumacher wife. Now Schumacher role is to keep a watchful eye over Marceau. As Mathijs said in his essay “Referential acting and the ensemble cast” from “Small Players, Small Parts Dossier” in Screen states that ensemble casts “play off of each other than off of reality” (89). Shumacher is a great example of this because his minor role is to stay on top of whatever Marceau is doing, during different scenes of the film Schumacher can be seen running around the ball room, maneuvering his way through the high-class guests in his own world trying to stop Marceau. Adding a sense of comedic effect to the film itself. Even after hunting down Marceau, Schumacher is seen to evolve again, and become friends with Marceau. According to Mathijs “referential acting involves the self-conscious design of a performance based on a previous one” (90). The character of Schumacher is portraying this very well, because every scene he is in, he’s doing something else to try and stop Marceau. Even though Schumacher is a minor role in this film, he still plays a big part in the film. As this character goes through a change of lacking authority that no one takes seriously, to befriending the man who tried to steal his wife and working together to kill the man with Christine.
Works Cited
Mathijis, Ernest. “Referential Acting and the Ensemble Cast.” Screen, vol. 52, no. 1, 2011, pp. 89-96. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq063
La Regle Du Jeu
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