Title: The Rules of the Game
Release Date: July 7, 1939
Director: Jean Renoir
Production Company: Nouvelle Édition Française
Summary/Review:
Released just months before the outbreak of World War II, The Rules of the Game is a scathing satire of the decadence of France’s wealthy elite. Director Jean Renoir (son of the artist Pierre-Auguste) uses innovative techniques such as deep-focus cinematography to depict the ensemble cast playing out overlapping conversations and plots at the same time. Before I even looked it up, I could tell this movie influenced the work of Robert Altman. In fact, Gosford Park is pretty close to a remake.
The film begins with aviator André (Roland Toutain) completing a transatlantic flight and declaring his love for Christine (Nora Gregor) in a radio interview. The whingy man-baby then has a temper tantrum that she has not come to greet him at the airport. Christine, it turns out, is married to Robert, Marquis de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio), a French aristocrat (as an aside, I could’ve sworn the French nobility was eliminated well before 1939, but maybe someone more knowledgeable in French history could clarify this for me). Robert, in turn, has a mistress, Geneviève (Mila Parély).
All of these characters, as well as Octave (played by the director, Jean Renoir), a mutual friend of André and Christine travel to Robert’s estate in Sologne for a weekend of parties. Christine is accompanied by her maid (Paulette Dubost) , who is married to the gamekeeper Schumacher (Gaston Modot), but more devoted to Christine. Schumacher catches a poacher, Marceau (Julien Carette), but Robert is impressed by his skill at killing rabbits and hires him on the spot as a domestic servant. Octave and Marceau are similar in that they’re both comical figures, outsiders, but in ways more morally-centered than everyone else around them.
At the estate, there are masked balls, performances, and a very grim rabbit hunt around which various romantic liaisons take place. There are declarations of love, heartbreak, arguments, fist fights, and ultimately the threat of using firearms (sometimes these things are happening at the same time with deep-focus tricks). Not surprisingly there is also a murder, albeit one due to mistaken identity. The way the elite carry on, not allowing the tragedy to affect their emotional display and continuing to play “the game” shows their moral callousness. This is a brilliant film about awful people.
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 