Preminger's style is subtle and restrained. But what Preminger does is translate the shifting relationships between these very different personalities into carefully choreographed camera movements, which over time evolve into an intensely expressive vision of ever shifting, ever expanding space. Most of the film is made up of relatively long tableaulike takes, yet Preminger often transforms static shots of conversations when a character leaves the group. When a group breaks up, his camera follows their bodies, twisting first one way, then another. Raymond and Cecile's bond survives only because each allows the other multiple romantic partners.
Fragmentation occurs in various ways in the film's key scenes.
When Raymond tells a lie to conceal his planned meeting with Elsa, he's one of three people shown at lunch, but he soon wanders off into the background. When Cecile has second thoughts and contemplates ending her scheme, she stands against a wall to the right in a geometric image that shows Anne seated in a window to the left, then suddenly rising and going outside, where she appears on Cecile's right and moves into the foreground and then walks away. Just before Raymond and Cecile see Philippe and Elsa lying together literally at their feet, they take a twisting path through the woods, which the camera records in a diverse mix of movements and positions, finally filming them from slightly above. These perspectives open up a gap between the camera and the characters, implying that the composition we see is only a momentary arrangement of bodies in a wider, freer space. Dancing together, the camera and characters trace the lineaments of both fickleness and obsession, of passing fancies and their dark consequences.