The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu)

Released: July 7, 1939

Studio: Gaumont Film Company

Genre: comedy/foreign

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 0.27 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: ?

Directing: Jean Renoir

Screenwriting: Jean Renoir, Carl Koch

Starring: Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parely, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette

Review:

This is writer/director Jean Renoir’s “masterpiece,” ^PM a “brilliant social comedy.” ^T95 It was notable for “the fluid, deep-focus photography; the script’s heady mix of humor, pathos, and tragedy; and most of all, the sense that we are witnessing the boundaries of an art form becoming limitless.” ^PM “The film effects audacious slides from melodrama into farce, from realism into fantasy, and from comedy into tragedy.” ^T95

This was “the daddy of all those ‘weekend gathering in a country house’ movies.” ^T98 The story centered “on a lavish country house party given by the Marquis de la Chesnaye and his wife (Dalio, Gregor).” ^T95 “Romantic intrigues, social rivalries, and human foibles are all observed with an unblinking eye that nevertheless refuses to judge. The carnage of the rabbit shoot, the intimations of mortality introduced by the after-dinner entertainment, and Renoir’s own performance are all unforgettable. Embracing every level of French society, from the aristocratic hosts to a poacher turned servant, the film presents a hilarious yet melancholic picture of a nation riven by petty class distinctions.” ^T95

The movie is as “much else a celebration of life as living theatre.” ^T98 Upon its original release, Rules was banned as “too demoralizing” ^T95 and wasn’t available again in its original form until 1956. ^T95