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THE RULES OF THE GAME
1939
Director
Jean Renoir
Starring
Nora Gregor
Paulette Dubost
Mila Parély
Marcel Dalio
Julien Carette
Roland Toutain
Jean Renoir
Runtime
110 minutes
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A shooting party at the country château of Parisian aristocrat Marquis Marcel Dalio goes from targeting rabbits to people, moving from sophisticated byplay to slapstick farce to tragedy, amid pioneering deep focus photography that keeps multiple intrigues running simultaneously, romantic escapades above and below the stairs, and the bumbling Octave (played by Renoir himself) providing playful and ironic commentary. THE RULES OF THE GAME is both a light, even frivolous, comedy of manners and a biting, satirical look at a corrupt society under the shadow of war. In short, it's one of the greatest films ever made.
The last picture Renoir made in France before fleeing the Nazi invasion for the United States and Hollywood, the exhibition history of THE RULES OF THE GAME is a drama in itself: originally trimmed from Renoir’s ideal cut to 94 minutes, it was shortened another 13 minutes after a disastrous premiere (one enraged patron reportedly tried to torch the theater). Two months later, it was banned as “demoralizing,” and later, its negative was destroyed by Allied bombs. Then, in 1959, over 200 boxes of forgotten RULES materials were unearthed, resulting in a reconstructed version by Renoir himself that played to worldwide acclaim, hailed internationally as a lost masterpiece. Its balanced mixture of farce and brittle irony make THE RULES OF THE GAME a dazzling accomplishment - original in form and style, a comic tragedy, absurd and profound, a shining model of real human complexity in cinema.
"So simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous, that you can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it." - Roger Ebert
"Like most critics, I fling around words like 'masterpiece' and 'genius' and 'brilliance' too much. They become cheapened, but, more than that, they confer a dusty schoolroom haze on works meant, more often than not, to shock or alarm us, make us laugh or scream, thrill us with the fear of death and awaken us to the cruelty and suffering of our fellow beings. God knows we don't always want that, but if you'll forgive the pompous sentiment, that sort of thing is the Mission of Art. Like the very greatest artists in all media, Renoir was able to transcend his own perspective, his own prejudices, and glimpse something of the terror and wonder of human life, the pain of misapplied or rejected love, for rich as for poor." - Andrew O'Hehir
The last picture Renoir made in France before fleeing the Nazi invasion for the United States and Hollywood, the exhibition history of THE RULES OF THE GAME is a drama in itself: originally trimmed from Renoir’s ideal cut to 94 minutes, it was shortened another 13 minutes after a disastrous premiere (one enraged patron reportedly tried to torch the theater). Two months later, it was banned as “demoralizing,” and later, its negative was destroyed by Allied bombs. Then, in 1959, over 200 boxes of forgotten RULES materials were unearthed, resulting in a reconstructed version by Renoir himself that played to worldwide acclaim, hailed internationally as a lost masterpiece. Its balanced mixture of farce and brittle irony make THE RULES OF THE GAME a dazzling accomplishment - original in form and style, a comic tragedy, absurd and profound, a shining model of real human complexity in cinema.
"So simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous, that you can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it." - Roger Ebert
"Like most critics, I fling around words like 'masterpiece' and 'genius' and 'brilliance' too much. They become cheapened, but, more than that, they confer a dusty schoolroom haze on works meant, more often than not, to shock or alarm us, make us laugh or scream, thrill us with the fear of death and awaken us to the cruelty and suffering of our fellow beings. God knows we don't always want that, but if you'll forgive the pompous sentiment, that sort of thing is the Mission of Art. Like the very greatest artists in all media, Renoir was able to transcend his own perspective, his own prejudices, and glimpse something of the terror and wonder of human life, the pain of misapplied or rejected love, for rich as for poor." - Andrew O'Hehir