Reddit mentions of Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond (Film and Culture)

Good thing we have Robin Wood to help us:

>Three 'worlds' are present in the film, either directly or by reference; one might describe them loosely (but only loosely) as present, past, and future. Thus we have, fully dramatized, the 'present' of the contemporary (1939) French upper class, its artificiality and archaism epitomized in La Chesnaye's mechanical birds; the 'past,' of which Octave is a relic, left behind by the tide, established by the references to Christine's father, the great Viennese conductor, evoking (in opposition to the birds) a culture in which art was still a living reality;and the 'future' (which is already present in the world beyond the chateau) of technology, represented by Andre's solo flight across the Atlantic, his aeroplane, and the radio that connects all this to the obsolete present. The three leading male characters- La Chesnaye, Octave, Andre- hence belong respectively to each 'world,' at once defining it and defined by it. Hence also Christine's 'choice' is not only among three men but among three 'worlds.' She herself remains essentially passive, lacking any firm sense of her identity, a kind of beautiful Rorschach blot awaiting definition by the male, and she is treated as such by all three suitors. The men, however, rely for their sense of identity upon achievement, and each is given his moment of glory or (in Octave's case) failure: La Chesnaye's absurd, pathetic, funny pride in the public display of his latest 'acquisition,' Andre's transatlantic flight, Octave's attempt (with no spectators) to enjoy, if only for a moment, the fantasy of being a great conductor like Christine's father, his grandiose opening gesture answered by the tinkling of the mechanical piano. Of the three men, Octave (because he is symbolically impotent) is the only one who doesn't treat Christine as a possession, an 'acquisition' that confirms their 'achievement' (the achievement being treated ironically in both cases). One can see how this points ahead to the extremely stylized and schematic postwar films, in which the three men are reduced to mere roles.

-'Renoir and Mozart,' Sexual Politics and Narrative Film, 1998.

I felt the same way too, then I read his essay, the above is just an excerpt, and I felt much more attuned to the movie's complexity and subtly.