The Rules of the GameMen and women, rich and poor, love makes people do crazy things. Jean Renoir's masterpiece--The Rules of the Game--is about a group of people all convinced that they are in love--or not in love--and having their hearts spun around over a holiday retreat at a chateau. Declarations of love go hand in hand with the screwball comedy. Emotions are barely restrained, but in time boil over into an all-out explosion at the masquerade ball. It is ironic that here is when everyone's masks come off, and the key players make their true feelings of affection known. And it all began with a historic flight over the Atlantic on the cusp of World War II...
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The Rules of the Game carries a reputation as one of the finest films ever made; but what makes it so fine? Often times, it becomes easy to look back on "old movies" and see them as dry or disenfranchised from today's dramatic sensibilities. The Rules of the Game remains fresh and lively throughout the whole picture; not just because the central idea of love is universal, but that the varied reactions and sharp dialogue are perennial. There is rarely--if ever--the feeling that any line of discourse is wasted. Even occasional moments of small talk are revealing, and tell us more about characters than an outpouring of emotion could--although that is here when needed, too. The scenes in The Rules of the Game are more than just shots framed to have characters talking at one another, mere instruments to advance the plot. Numerous scenes track throughout the chateau, across airstrips, and in the outdoors where the hunt takes place. What this achieves is the sense that this is a world, not just a stage, and that we are participants in this grand party. Characters sometimes occupy the background, even when they are not expressly featured in a scene, reminding us that they are there, not just waiting for their turn to have a moment. The Rules of the Game has influenced numerous filmmakers with its approach to creating a world rather than a stage; for my money, the most memorable pupil of this approach is Robert Altman, who is famously quoted as saying that, "The Rules of the Game taught me the rules of the game". The film was created in 1939, and was banned--and heinously neglected--following its inception by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and even select French cineastes at the time for its perceived negative portrayal of French society, notably the affluent class it appears to satirize. In no small degree of irony, the film opens with a quote from "The Marriage of Figaro", a play--then opera by Mozart--which was also banned in France centuries past on the very same grounds. The more things change...
It is true that The Rules of the Game is about love, but it is more about the way that love makes us do things we would not if we were more sensible about it. As famed aviator André Jurieux (Roland Toutain) crosses the Atlantic Ocean in record time, his most pressing concern upon landing is whether his lover, the married emigre from Austria, Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), is waiting to meet him; she is not...she is home listening to his broadcast in her posh bedroom, chuckling with her husband, Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) about his newest animatronic toy for his collection. André receives some comfort from his friend, Octave (director Jean Renoir), who attempts to unite the two to reconcile at their chateau retreat, which invariably leads to predictably awkward and even explosive results. And as Christine maintains her position as the object of affection for the "upstairs" excitement at the chateau, the "downstairs" antics follows the absurd pursuit of the maid Lisette (Paulette Dubost) by not only her jealous husband and gamekeeper, Edouard Schumacher (Gaston Modot), but the poacher-turned-domestic employee, Marceau (Julien Carette). This dynamic is a classic of theater, popular in the comedies of William Shakespeare as they are today in film and television. The title of the film is drawn from a few key instances; for example, when André crashes the car out of grief at Christine's apparent dismissal of his affection, Octave informs him that he may pursue her, but must play by the (always undefined) "rules of the game". As in life as it is with love, the only rules are that there are no rules, and those who presume to understand them are only kidding themselves, as André later discovers when he attempts to invoke these "rules", only to find himself facing Robert's right hook. One of the social high points for the party is the hunt of rabbit and pheasant along the grounds, the literal game which the parties partake in, but one which is representative of a kind of callousness and cruelty which the affluent party goers are content to ignore. The hunt is an extended sequence where we are witness to animals who had been baited into danger enduring their final moments, an eerie foreshadowing of the unfortunate conclusion. Even the rules in this game seem an arbitrary means to exercise dominance over another; although I'm sure some out there are familiar with hunting rules, you're more knowledgeable than I if you know what a "seventh blind" is. What I found both interesting and inevitable is how no matter the rules or formalities, where matters of the heart are concerned, they simply pose an impediment, or worse, a frustration which invariably leads to the raucous (and altogether hysterical) outpouring of screaming, gunfire, and fisticuffs which delightfully subverts the presentation of a civilized soiree. It is not merely that some rules are made to be broken...they all are, because otherwise, they would not be rules, merely the status quo.
Recommended for: Fans of a classic comedy about love and manners (arguably the comedy in that regard), which remains fresh and funny, as well as touching and wistful even. It is a must-see for film buffs, and a consistently engaging romp into the period and times just before the onset of Europe's most devastating war. And as The Rules of the Game was regarded as a critical and commercial failure at first--now regarded as one of the finest films ever made--it is a lesson to avoid rushing to judgment simply because popular opinion demands it so.
It is true that The Rules of the Game is about love, but it is more about the way that love makes us do things we would not if we were more sensible about it. As famed aviator André Jurieux (Roland Toutain) crosses the Atlantic Ocean in record time, his most pressing concern upon landing is whether his lover, the married emigre from Austria, Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), is waiting to meet him; she is not...she is home listening to his broadcast in her posh bedroom, chuckling with her husband, Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) about his newest animatronic toy for his collection. André receives some comfort from his friend, Octave (director Jean Renoir), who attempts to unite the two to reconcile at their chateau retreat, which invariably leads to predictably awkward and even explosive results. And as Christine maintains her position as the object of affection for the "upstairs" excitement at the chateau, the "downstairs" antics follows the absurd pursuit of the maid Lisette (Paulette Dubost) by not only her jealous husband and gamekeeper, Edouard Schumacher (Gaston Modot), but the poacher-turned-domestic employee, Marceau (Julien Carette). This dynamic is a classic of theater, popular in the comedies of William Shakespeare as they are today in film and television. The title of the film is drawn from a few key instances; for example, when André crashes the car out of grief at Christine's apparent dismissal of his affection, Octave informs him that he may pursue her, but must play by the (always undefined) "rules of the game". As in life as it is with love, the only rules are that there are no rules, and those who presume to understand them are only kidding themselves, as André later discovers when he attempts to invoke these "rules", only to find himself facing Robert's right hook. One of the social high points for the party is the hunt of rabbit and pheasant along the grounds, the literal game which the parties partake in, but one which is representative of a kind of callousness and cruelty which the affluent party goers are content to ignore. The hunt is an extended sequence where we are witness to animals who had been baited into danger enduring their final moments, an eerie foreshadowing of the unfortunate conclusion. Even the rules in this game seem an arbitrary means to exercise dominance over another; although I'm sure some out there are familiar with hunting rules, you're more knowledgeable than I if you know what a "seventh blind" is. What I found both interesting and inevitable is how no matter the rules or formalities, where matters of the heart are concerned, they simply pose an impediment, or worse, a frustration which invariably leads to the raucous (and altogether hysterical) outpouring of screaming, gunfire, and fisticuffs which delightfully subverts the presentation of a civilized soiree. It is not merely that some rules are made to be broken...they all are, because otherwise, they would not be rules, merely the status quo.
Recommended for: Fans of a classic comedy about love and manners (arguably the comedy in that regard), which remains fresh and funny, as well as touching and wistful even. It is a must-see for film buffs, and a consistently engaging romp into the period and times just before the onset of Europe's most devastating war. And as The Rules of the Game was regarded as a critical and commercial failure at first--now regarded as one of the finest films ever made--it is a lesson to avoid rushing to judgment simply because popular opinion demands it so.