La Regle Du Jeu
1939
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME is a devastating satire of the pre-WWII French aristocracy. Starring Marcel Dalio as wealthy landowner Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye, it charts the shifting relationships among the guests at a weekend hunting party on his .. Read more
| Starring | Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain, Jean Renoir |
|---|---|
| Director | Jean Renoir |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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La Regle Du Jeu
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME is a devastating satire of the pre-WWII French aristocracy. Starring Marcel Dalio as wealthy landowner Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye, it charts the shifting relationships among the guests at a weekend hunting party on his vast estate. The guest list includes Robert's mistress Genevieve (Mila Parely), from whom he's trying to part, and Andre Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a famed aviator who is in love with Robert's wife, Christine (Nora Gregor). As they begin a dizzy dance of escape and pursuit, their games are observed and echoed by the servants below the stairs. The gamekeeper Schumacher (Gaston Modot) is trying to keep the poacher, Marceau (Julien Carette), from poaching on his pretty wife, Lisette (Paulette Dubost), unaware that his boss also has his eye on her. The passionate Jurieu, the only guest incapable of the appropriate hypocrisy, finds Christine in an embrace with a random lover (Pierre Nay), and the startled woman decides to leave Robert and go away with the aviator. Renoir's subtle deployment of long tracking shots in multiplanar deep focus reveals the relations of both groups and individuals as he dismantles the rituals of hypocrisy that make this society run smoothly.
| Starring | Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain, Jean Renoir, Paulette Dubost, Pierre Magnier, Mila Parely |
|---|---|
| Director | Jean Renoir |
| Studio | BFI VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 50 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | French |
| Subtitles | English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Jun 2003 Production year: 1939 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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This complex comedy of manners from director Jean Renoir was such a box-office turkey on its first release in 1939 that it was not allowed out again at its original length until the late 1950s. It was then promptly acclaimed as a masterpiece, going on a few years later to selection by an international poll of critics as the third greatest film of all time. Focusing on an up-market country house party, the film is a sophisticated, poignant and often funny study of social mores and the games people play. Renoir not only directs but co-writes and stars. The film may not suit all tastes, but who am I not to give five stars?
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Banned on its original release as 'too demoralising', and only made available again in its original form in 1956,... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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21 out of 21 people found this review helpful
La Regle du Jeu
I think this is one of the truly great films - definitely in my top 20. It starts like documentary - bang up to date (1939)- with newsreel of an airman landing in a media circus after a solo transatlantic flight. He did it, he says, for a woman.
Somebody's wife, actually. The drama then regresses through layer after layer of French society until you could be back in pre-Revolutionary times with a tragedy of almost Greek coldness and inevitability. The character fall in and out of "love" like automatons. Poacher, gamekeeper, maid or aristocrat, it doesn't seem to matter. Could this be democracy? No, they're simply bored out of their skulls.
Virtually the only likeable character, the only one with any human decency or warmth, is Octave who is played by Renoir himself. His camera swoops pitilessly round the gilded chambers and corridors, catching every little act of nastiness and betrayal. To begin with you wonder whether this is simply a French Gosford Park; soon you realise that this is actually one of the most angry political films ever made. No wonder it was banned by the Nazi occupiers. It couldn't be less like the warm nostalgia of Renoir pere - this film can't wait for the Revolution. Unfortunately, it realises, the new regime won't be any better.
The short is also worth watching for its insight into Renoir's technique, though the actual commentary is a model of French academic pretentiousness. -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Superb
Not to be missed - a real insight into class and prejudice and the malaise at the heart of pre-war France and French society.
Hedonism as an avoidance of reality: maybe Renoir should be alive today.
Brilliant, superb, excellent. Anyone with an interest in film, or in people, should watch this. -
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Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME is a devastating satire of the pre-WWII French aristocracy. Starring Marcel Dalio as wealthy ... -