Talk:The Rules of the Game

Deep focus and moving long shots as “sophisticated” techniques in 1939
Anyone who has been following the recent rediscovery of the restored riches of the silent film era is likely to do a double-take at this statement and wish for a description beyond “sophisticated,” a subjective term that may suggest “unprecedented.” There is no citation, so there is no article to provide in-depth explanation. As we now know, film makers of the sound era reinvented many tools and techniques of the art that silent era film makers had already used. In fact, some film makers of the sound era have been credited with being the “first”—always a dangerous term—when they were not. One example is the crab dolly, whose invention was long credited to Vincente Minnelli. In fact, James Wong Howe created and used a crab dolly (perhaps it could be described as “the first known crab dolly.”) as early as 1927.

So I would suggest a little more on this subjective term, or at least a usable citation.