Les affaires sont les affaires, putting Dréville’s adaptation of Mirbeau’s play into perspective Xavier Lechat and the hunt

In his transposition of Mirbeau’s play, Dréville made choices owing to the shift from theatre to cinema, from the stage, a limited and enclosed space, to the possibility of multiple settings, both indoor and outdoor. Thus he replaced the high society dinner by another “topos”: hunting with hounds. This hunting scene appears to be, on the whole, crucial for the understanding of the symbolic significance of the movie, shot under the Occupation.