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Nora Gregor, Jean Renoir, Marcel Dalio, Roland Toutain, Paulette Dubost ... see more see more... , Gaston Modot , Nicolas Amato , Julien Carette , Henri Cartier-Bresson , Tony Corteggiani , Eddy Debray , Lise Elina , Roger Forster , Richard Francoeur , Camille François , Claire Gerard , Jenny Hélia , Leon Larive , Pierre Magnier , Anne Mayen , Pierre Nay , Mila Parely , Odette Talazac , André Zwoboda , Antoine Corteggiani

Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu/Rules of the Game was not warmly received on its original release in 1939: audiences at its opening engagements in... read more read more... Paris were openly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of derision, and distributors cut the movie from 113 minutes to a mere 80. It was banned as morally perilous during the German occupation and the original negative was destroyed during WWII. It wasn't until 1956 that Renoir was able to restore the film to its original length. In retrospect, this reaction seems both puzzling and understandable; at its heart, Rules of the Game is a very moral film about frequently amoral people. A comedy of manners whose wit only occasionally betrays its more serious intentions, it contrasts the romantic entanglements of rich and poor during a weekend at a country estate. André Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio). Robert, however, has a mistress of his own, whom he invites to a weekend hunting party at his country home, along with André and his friend Octave (played by Jean Renoir himself). Meanwhile, the hired help have their own game of musical beds going on: a poacher is hired to work as a servant at the estate and immediately makes plans to seduce the gamekeeper's wife, while the gamekeeper recognizes him only as the man who's been trying to steal his rabbits. Among the upper classes, infidelity is not merely accepted but expected; codes are breached not by being unfaithful, but by lacking the courtesy to lie about it in public. The weekend ends in a tragedy that suggests that this way of life may soon be coming to an end. Renoir's witty, acidic screenplay makes none of the characters heroes or villains, and his graceful handling of his cast is well served by his visual style. He tells his story with long, uninterrupted takes using deep focus (cinematographer Jean Bachelet proves a worthy collaborator here), following the action with a subtle rhythm that never calls attention to itself. The sharply-cut hunting sequence makes clear that Renoir avoided more complex editing schemes by choice, believing that long takes created a more lifelike rhythm and reduced the manipulations of over-editing. Rules of the Game uses WWI as an allegory for WWII, and its representation of a vanishing way of life soon became all too true for Renoir himself, who, within a year of the film's release, was forced to leave Europe for the United States.. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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37 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Jean Renoir

Release Date: April 8, 1950

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DVD Release Date: January 20, 2004

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Jean Renoir and Crew Le Regle Du Jeu (The Rules Of The Game)
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Flixster Reviews (707)

  • SirPant
    September 30, 2009
    SirPant
    A classic from Renoir. The interplay between the wonderful bourgeois upper class characters just before the second world war has never been matched. It's been copied countless times but has never been bettered in my opinion!
  • arashxak
    July 16, 2009
    arashxak
    "The awful thing about life is this, Everyone has their reasons"
  • tsigur
    June 19, 2009
    tsigur
    Fantastic film. I hate the rich and this is a great fuck you to them. I love the style that the film was shot in as well, with wides as if watching a play unfold. There is also the rabbit hunt which is done extremely well. Well crafted film on a lot of levels. I was also impresse... read mored with the dialogue which was funny and sharp, especially considering the time it was made.
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 18, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, this one falls a bit flat for me. i understand the commentary renoir was attempting, but the cinematography and acting were bland and the editing was distracting. it deserves a decent score for the fact that high society ... read moretypes might find the satire engaging and because the film is so well respected, and it certainly wasnt a bad film by any means, but this is one of the "greats" that fails to move me. the decade has certainly produced better films.
  • staindslaved
    March 7, 2012
    staindslaved
    Before there was Citizen Kane there was The Rules of the Game. Orson Welles' masterpiece has topped Sight & Sound magazines annual top films of all-time list for 5 straight decades. The film most commonly in the runner up spot is The Rules of the Game. A French film from a fam... read moreed director that bombed at the box-office and was critically panned on its initial release, it was hacked by producers from a 113 min run-time to 80 min's. It wasn't till 1956 when the restoration of the film was complete when audiences realized the greatness of Rules of the Game. It is one of the most engaging and authentic I have ever seen. The film is many things but perhaps most simplistically it is a French comedy about manners. There are the wealthy who are throwing a party with much talk of a recent engagement and typical infidelity gossip, meanwhile the help are observing and discussing their masters and madams lives and even having their own little scandals. It is in the final act when the film really has it's most impactful moment that cements it as a cinematic masterpiece, when a man's death is an accident and simultaneously a murder. These people who we've watched have both good and bad qualities throughout them. They are not good or bad people, they are just people and we can not approve of or condemn them just like we cannot approve of or condemn those most responsible for the man's death. A grand cinematic achievement, the best French film of all-time and the second greatest non-American film behind Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. An absolute must see for any film-buff or cinephile.
  • fb208103125
    November 20, 2011
    fb208103125
    Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game was a critical and commercial failure upon it's release in 1939 and it wasn't for another 20 years when it would be restored to the original length and earn the success and appraisal it does now. The film is a series of long shots and a focus ... read moreon catching not just a certain character or place but the entirety of the situation and the players in it. The film is both a drama and a comedy at the same time and bounces between humorous and absurd to downright tragic and unsettling. There is no main protagonist or character, but rather every person has their place and role, one that each performs and captures amazingly well and not at all contrived or rehearsed in it's delivery. The hunting scene near the middle of the movie is truly one of the most memorable and powerful scenes in all of cinema, not to mention one of the hardest to endure in it's brutality as well as it's message. The Rules of the Game is certainly a masterpiece and Renoir an auteur, as this is a look at society unlike most, if not all, others. By this I mean, it is more true and sincere than most. Highly Recommended!
  • zeravenyoej
    October 2, 2007
    zeravenyoej
    sooooooo boringgggggggg
  • wbgoose13
    November 26, 2006
    wbgoose13
    Rich French classic for which my appreciation should only grow.
  • ragglefraggle09
    March 20, 2012
    ragglefraggle09
    "La Regle De Jeu"s portrayal of a despicable society composed of morally inept, promiscuous, hedonistic, libertine men and women so brainwashed by their own elitist spoilage is perhaps even more relevant today than it was in 1950. It seems that the film, like "La Dolce Vita," als... read moreo touches upon a common pattern, most notably vices, in human behavior that always goes unnoticed. This feat makes works like "La Regle De Jeu" not only timelessly entertaining but also essential for every generation to watch and to absorb.

    Sadly, time has made the silent, meticulous pace of the film to be somewhat outdated. Some of its humorous commentary on the insensitive, ignorant behavior of higher French society (which I more than joyfully found parallels in my own society,) that ranged from childish, impulsive jealousy, to meaningless barrages of decontextualized flirting, to straight up fucking murder, may also seem subtle and toned-down by today's standards. The film could be slow at points. After sucking you into the lives of its subjects and creating a perpetually innocent environment of a trivial house party, it was quite difficult to sense a noticeable escalation in the film's plot as it delicately builds itself through the gossip and bickering of the characters. In spite of these few arbitrary faults, "La Regle De Jeu" is still, holistically, a substantially enriching experience.
  • simeondeutsch1
    October 23, 2010
    simeondeutsch1
    Often cited as the second greatest movie of all time next to Citizen Kane, second greatest foreign film of all time next to Seven Samurai, and second greatest European film next to Battleship Potemkin. And does it fulfill all these expectations? Yes.

    It's like a very serious ... read more"The Importance of Being Earnest" in that it's a door-slamming farce without laughs that satirizes the upper class by showing how their actions (in this case various love triangles) have no consequences.

    Director Jean Renoir, just like his other masterpiece The Grand Illusion, doesn't show any visual talent that would rank him among the greatest directors ever (though there is a fantastically photographed rabbit/fowl hunting scene), but instead creates a perfect drama and romance that works as a cinematic play. It's this drama and romance that holds your interest and draws you in throughout the film's somewhat lengthy running time. His style is both realistic, intelligent, and overall hard hitting.

    Also, just like The Grand Illusion, all of the performances are exceptional, which makes it difficult to single out one performance in particular. If I were to do that though, my choice would actually be Jean Renoir himself, who plays corpulent and eccentric "Octave", who is stuck in the middle of all the drama and acts as an advisor to everyone.

    The Rules of the Game is the definite cinematic drama and manages, more than many other films, to remain as emotionally resonate as it was when it was made. 101/100

View All La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Desson Thomson
April 26, 2007
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

The mobile camera seems to be a member of the party, as it follows the almost balletically choreographed movements of the cast. The effect for the audience is transcendental. We are watching life at i... Full Review

John Monaghan
February 16, 2007
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press

A disaster when initially released, the movie's reputation has only grown since. Full Review

Michael Wilmington
December 28, 2006
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

There are about a dozen genuine miracles in the history of cinema, and one of them is Jean Renoir's supreme 1939 tragi-comedy The Rules of the Game. Full Review

Mark Feeney
December 22, 2006
Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

What ultimately defines the film, what makes it unforgettable, is its tragic gravity. Full Review

Owen Gleiberman
November 8, 2006
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

[The film] is a comedy, a tragedy, a portrait of class manners, a love story of touching caprice (who will Nora Grégor's Christine fall for? Whoever woos her at the right moment), and far and away the... Full Review

Dave Kehr
November 8, 2006
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The film was withdrawn, recut, and eventually banned by the occupying forces for its "demoralizing" effects. It was not shown again in its complete form until 1965, when it became clear that here, per... Full Review

Andrew O'Hehir
November 2, 2006
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

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 ... Full Review

Leslie Camhi
October 31, 2006
Leslie Camhi, Village Voice

If you think you know it, see it again for its newly rediscovered depth of field, and even more, for its infinite wellsprings of character and empathy. Full Review

Roger Ebert
April 9, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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. Full Review

Howard Thompson
November 4, 2003
Howard Thompson, New York Times

A deeply personal statement of unusual richness and complexity. Full Review

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