Criterion Collection (series)

Rules of the Game

DVD Features:

Additional Release Material:

• Introduction by Jean Renoir
• Audio Commentary - 1. Written By Alexander Sesonske - Film Scholar, Read By Peter Bogdonavich - Director
• Audio Commentary (Selected Scene) - 1. Christopher Faulkner - Renoir Historian
• Featurette - 1. "Jean Renoir le Patron: La Reeagl et l'Exception" (1966) - French TV Program
                       2. Video Essay
                       3. Jean Gaborit and Jaques Durand Discuss the Reconstruction and Rerelease of the Film (1965)
                       4. Interview with Assistant Cameraman Alain Renoir
                       5. Interview with Set Designer Max Douy

Text/Image Galleries:

• Written Tributes to the Film and Renoir by Filmmakers Wim Wenders, Francois Truffaut, Paul Schrader, Bernard Tavernier, and More

Description by OLDIES.com:

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece The Rules of the Game is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners. Amorous intrigue abounds at a weekend hunting party where the refusal of one of the guests to play by the class-based rules sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. Although the original negative was destroyed during World War II, this edition features the fully reconstructed version embraced by audiences and critics around the world as a timeless representation of Jean Renoir's genius.

Product Description:

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.

Plot Synopsis:

Possibly the pinnacle of Jean Renoir's career, THE RULES OF THE GAME is a witty, elegant, and pessimistic comedy of manners set among the French aristocracy on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Marcel Dalio stars as Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye, a wealthy landowner who organizes a weekend hunting party at his vast estate. Among the guests are Andre Jurieu, a famed avaiator who is in love with de la Chesnaye's wife, Christine, and Robert's mistress Genevieve.

Plot Keywords:

Comedy | Drama | Essential Cinema | Love Triangles | Recommended | Romance | Social Issues | World War II

Production Notes:

• Theatrical release: July 7,1939.
• The film was shot in Aubigny, Chateau La Ferte Saint-Aubain, La Motte-Beuvron, Brinon-sur-Sauldre, France.
• The film was widely derided at its premiere and banned as a threat to morale during the Nazi occupation. Later versions were cut from 110 to 80 minutes.
• Special camera lenses were ground to achieve the depth of focus Renoir desired.
• The famous hunting scene took two months to shoot.

Cast and Crew: