The Rules of the Game - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: Rules of the Lame
Review: This masterpiece is dated and tired. The characters are over-the-top and just plain silly. Wittiness, manners, and attitude reverberate in quick-fire dialogue to an unbearable degree of irritation. Seeing this to the end was a chore. How this can be ranked as one of the best movies of all time is beyond me. You can talk about production values all you want, but still, the story must come first! I recommend you see this, just so that you can get a true appreciation for those saps whose careers are based on finding more there than there really is. I'm convinced that most critics are largely influenced by those critics before them, to the extent that judging a film's merit becomes an uninspiring task in objectivity. And that's too bad.

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous classic, exquisite cinema, Renoir as the Meastro!
Review: This movie is simply grandiose, Renoir truly did a wonderful job with this one. One thing that captured me is the way Renoir did the screenplay, each character in interesting. None of them are a bored for the viewer, the dialogues are still fresh after all these years and even if the movie is 70+ years old, it is still one of cinema greatest film, if you have the chance to see this one, take it. You will not regret it, I promise you.

Rating:
Summary: A nice film that surprised the critics.
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"The Rules of the Game" known in France as "La Règle du jeu' is a really impressive mobie which initailly did porrly with critics and at the box office but has become an international hit. It has been regarded as one of the best films ever made.

It is about a group of hunters on a weekend retreat out in the French countryside. When one of them disregards the rules set for the hunt, problems ensue.

The film was not as good as I had expected but I did like it. Jean Renior did a great job directing this film. The Criterion Collection has done an excellent job re-releasing it also. They have some excellent special features in this double disc set. In this version the film is completely uncut and includes scenes that were not in the film's premiere.

Disc 1 contains the film with optional audio commentary written by Alexander Sesonker and read by Peter Bogdanovich. There is an introduction to the film hosted by Jean Renoir. Thre is also a side by side compariso of the final scene in the different cuts of the film. The film has been edited in different versions and the short version is the sone seen most often before this release. The other feature on disc 1 is an analyses of particular scenes by Christopher Faulkner.

Disc 2 has written tributes to the film by: Paul Schrader, Alain Resnais, Amy Taubin, Luc Sante, Robin Wood, Noah Baumbach, Kent Jones, Kenneth Bowser, Wim Wenders, J. Hoberman, Peter Cowie, Cameron Crowe, and Robert Altman. There is also a 1995 interview with Mila Parély, a new interview with the film's set director May Douy, an interview with the director's son Alain, who also assisted in the film's production, a video essay about the film's production release and reconstruction, an interview with Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand who worked on the reconstruction and re relaese.

Also included are excerpts from two documentaries about Jean Renoir. One is the first half of a BBC TV serial that has interviews with Renoir's family, friends and colleagues. The other si a Frenct TV special, "Jean Renoir, le patroni: La Rège at l'exception" There is also a bunch of other essays in the 24 page booklet included.

If you buy this movie, get the Criterion Collection edition. anything else is inferior.

Rating:
Summary: A peerless, timeless, utterly transcendent film
Review: To all the reviewers below who express disappointment that this film wasn't as "great" as they thought it was going to be, I have one suggestion: Watch it again. And again. And again. A work of art this profound does not reveal itself in one hasty viewing. To the reviewer who said that they have never heard anyone explain exactly why the RULES OF THE GAME is such a great film, I am going to do just that, or at least try to in the limited confines I have here. Unlike just about any other fiction film ever produced, Renoir's 1939 masterpiece, I think, captures and preserves on celluloid the rhythmic whirlpool of life as it is actually lived by real humans. The conventions of the Hollywood narrative - organized around "stars," a complex-yet-hidden editing style that tells us what to look at and how to feel as we watch, and a story which itself is supposed to provide a clear moral or lesson - just cannot be found here. This fundamental difference between RULES and the kind of film most of us are used to seeing may explain the angry, even bewildered disappointment expressed by some reviewers - "Is THAT all there is?" RULES is perhaps the only film that allows the spectator to choose, and more importantly, to think for themselves about what they are seeing as they see it. I myself had heard of RULES long before I actually saw it a few years ago, and I remember leaving my first screening feeling distinctly let down. Oh, sure, I was very impressed, even awed by individual sequences (like the famous hunting scene and the great danse macabre), and as a document of French life in the last year of peace, it seemed to me well worth seeing, but what WAS all the fuss about? And then a very strange thing started to happen to me - going about my day to day existence, random scenes from the film began to appear in my mind and I found myself thinking about the characters in RULES quite a bit. At parties, I started to stand back and watch the people interact in an unconscious but beautifully choreographed dance, just like the characters in RULES do. I began paying more attention to the rigid expectations of manners and etiquette, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which people accept and reject those rules. I even began to perceive that the one great rule which most of us adhere to is the RULE for which Andre Jurieu dies - never demonstrate true passion in public. The marvelous release of RULES on this magnificent DVD gives us all the chance to appreciate and enjoy Renoir's marvelous achievement. With each sucessive viewing, I am more and more in awe of what Renoir and his cast accomplish in this remarkable work - RULES is not a typical cinematic "imitation" or stylization of human life, it IS human life itself. This is the only fiction film ever made that seems like a documentary. The plot itself is quite simple: In the fall of 1938, famous aviator Andre Jurieu completes a solo flight across the Atlantic. Although the country goes wild over him, he pays no attention to his own celebrity, because he did it all for love - the love of a married woman, Christine, Marquise de la Chesnaye. Exposing his innermost reasons for his heroic act in a radio interview, he castigates Christine for failing to welcome him personally after his flight. In her boudoir, Christine shuts off the radio and prepares for a night out on the town with her husband, Robert. Although she does not know it, Robert is still seeing his old flame, the aristocratic Genevieve. Robert's infidelity is a secret, but Andre's public declaration of passion for Christine threatens to shame them all. Andre, driving himself insane over Christine, begs his best friend, Octave (played with Falstaffian panache and humour by Renoir himself) to intercede on his behalf. Octave, who loves Christine as a sister, persuades her and Robert to invite Andre along on a hunting party at La Colinere, the Chesnaye's country house. At La Colinere, matters reach a head one fateful night after a masked ball. Christine - who tells Andre that she loves him, yet in the end agrees to run away with Octave - ultimately remains with her husband after Andre is accidentally shot to death by Robert's gamekeeper. There is no way that a simple plot summary can indicate much about this film, but it is a start. One reviewer mentions that none of the characters are sympathetic. Perhaps. Yet none of the characters are unsympathetic, either. In this film, I feel like I am watching real people in all their messy complexity, not characters created to prove a point. Each of the characters - like each of us - has their good and bad sides, and Renoir allows all of his people to display their personalities in dizzying complexity. Andre - whose passion for Christine seems both selfish and excessive at times - loves with a force that will cost him his life. Robert is a kind, cultured, but weak man who tries to please everyone all the time and ultimately pleases no one. Christine - treated like a toy or a symbol by all the men - just wants to be loved for herself and longs for true friendship, even to the point of befriending her husband's mistress...Indeed, Christine's closest relationship is with her maid, Lisette, and not with a man at all. Even the glamorous, brittle and annoying Genevieve is revealed as suffering from her unrequited love for Robert - and is there anything more heartbreaking than being unable to stop loving someone who no longer loves you but who once did? And that is just the major characters! I should say that no one character or actor dominates this film - Renoir seems to give everyone equal screen time, allowing everyone to explain their "reasons" through their actions. The technique of this film is frankly astonishing. Renoir uses "deep focus" to stage one complex sequence after another, interweaving plot and character so skillfully that each scene seems packed with incident and implication, so much so that only repeated viewings make clear that there is not a single moment in this film which does not bear fruit in later events. And yet, how free and easy it all seems! No fiction film is more natural than this one - somehow, the actors don't seem like actors at all, but ordinary people making decisions right in front of your eyes, the consequences of which are then played out in the next exchange. The dialogue is witty and humorous - the film is also very, very funny. Many may be put off by the odd shifts in tone that characterize RULES - as in the famous hunting scene, which grows more unbearable to watch with each passing second and leaves the viewer drained, exhausted. We go to a film expecting something clear - a comedy, a drama, a documentary, a fiction - but this film swings wildly between comedy and tragedy, often within the same scene - just like life itself. Our reactions are never spoonfed and we are never told what to think or how to feel by any silly music - the only music in the film occurs when the characters play music, which is a relief after a million manipulative Hollywood scores. Other reviewers have mentioned the film's social context, so I won't go into that here. Let me conclude by saying that the RULES OF THE GAME is one of those rare art masterpieces that makes you feel life's beauty, brevity and horror all at the same time. It explores the meaning of fundamental emotions and strips away the lies we tell ourselves so we can function in society. Ultimately, RULES is a tragic film, because it shows that the basic human impulse is to love, yet this impulse is forever blocked, frustrated and destroyed by the lies we tell ourselves, the strictures we place on ourselves, and by our own inaccurate perceptions. I have no words of praise high enough for Renoir's achievement. The Criterion DVD is itself a joy - the negative of RULES was destroyed in WW II and this goregous transfer is the best we are ever likely to have. RULES is also a physically beautiful film, exquisitely lit and shot, stunningly composed, and if you have only seen this film in grainy, decayed prints, be prepared for an aesthetic revelation! This is one of those rare works of art that forces you to measure yourself against it. What conclusions will you make about your own enslavement to the "rules?"

Rating:
Summary: The Rules of the Game - Criterion Collection
Review: When affluent Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) hosts a party at his sprawling property, emotions run high. Guests include Robert's mistress Genevieve (Mila Parely) and pilot Andre Jurieu (Roland Toutain), who fancies Robert's wife, Christine (Nora Gregor). Meanwhile, Schumacher (Gaston Modot) is trying to keep Marceau (Julien Carette) from hitting on his wife (Paulette Dubost). All the while, the servants watch with great interest.

Rating:
Summary: LA REGLE DU JEU--legends, myths, and the facts
Review: With the world-spread acclaim as Renoir's classic and one of the greatest film ever made, we tend to forget that it was only 20 years after its making that RULES OF THE GAME was acknowledged as a masterpiece, when the 'restoration' as we see today was released (now with this DVD we have to realize that it was more of a 're-creation') . According to Renoir himself, some audience tried to set the theatre on fire at its original release.

With the general acceptance of Renoir as a filmmaker of great humanitarian values, it may be also true that we tend to forget that RULES OF THE GAMES is, unlike GRAND ILLUSION which truly deserves to be popular, a hugely complex, rather in-accessible film to some, and most of all an extremely aggressive social satyre.

The most famous quote from the film is perhaps, Octave saying "The most terrible thing on this earth is that, everybody has a good reason", which is often regarded as representing the spirit of the film, as well as Renoir's own humanist philosophy. But what the film may actually be saying is; "everybody may think he or she has good reasons, but everybody is deceiving him/herself. Everybody is a fool, and everybody is doomed".

And the French society then, which is symbolically represented in this film mainly as a bunch of aristocrats and high bourgeois, was doomed without realizing themselves; the film was made in 1939 and the central character/the owner of the Chateau de la Coliniere the Marquis de Lachenay, is Jewish. The Nazis had taken power in Germany already 6 years ago, and the film even suggests that anti-Semitism was spreading also in France in every social class (the most anti-Semitic remark in the film is made by one of the servants, nevertheless quickly dismissed by the cook's clever but actually impotent remark), and still they continue the farcical behaviour. The film ends with the General innocently prasing de Lachenay, being "a class dignity that is dissapearing today".

Of course, Renoir is exploiting his own gift in comedy to its extreme, so the film is unbelievably funny. It is also beautifully mis-en-scene, many scenes can be studied as a text-book of complex blocking with multiple characters and how a filmmaker can get away with it. But what is lurking beneath the hilarious, light-hearted surface of the film is extremely dark and pessimistic.

One of the most honest remarks about the film may be from Martin Scorsese, who finds the film marvelous "but I really don't understand it, maybe because I don't come from that social class". As much as it is one of the greatest--perhaps THE greatest-- social satyre and farce ever filmed, it is not a necessary a film for everybody. But as for those who have extreme sense of humour and irony, GO FOR IT!

The essay by film scholar and Renoir's friend Alexander Sesonske, read by Peter Bogdanovich as audio commentary, can be heard on this DVD as it was already on Criterion's Laser Disc edition, and efficiently puts the film into its social/historical context for our deeper, more precise understanding.

Sesonske also shares fine analysis about Renoir's mise-en-scene that we often miss at first-viewing, for the film on its surface is so fluid, looks even casually shot. it certainly is not! It's one of the film that Renoir went extremely over scheduled, took a hell of a lot of time to put together. And the new High-Def transfer also allows us to observe many detailed techniques Renoir employed; lighting, focus-shifting, moving camera-- of course, after repeated viewing and careful observations.

With the many supplements, especially with the version-comparison, this DVD edition may be the first occasion to shed some clear lights on the film's complex version history that went through so many modifications. First of all, unlike the many legends on Renoir and RULES have told us about "the original version", the 1959 restoration (the version also presented on this DVD) IS NOT what Renoir intended to show in 1939, when he first made the film.

This version that we have believed for many years to be the closest to Renoir's original cut is actually more than 10 minutes LONGER, with many scenes that Renoir initially left on the editing room floor.

Dispite the legends that said RULES was cut and mutilated by censorships, it was actually Renoir himself who also cut out about 10 minutes from his original cut, in desperate efforts to make the film visible after the violent reactions caused by the film's premiere.

According to Renoir, there is still one scene that he would have liked to put back--but the materials were lost, and not yet re-discovered to this date.

This Criterion edition is obviously a very important occasion for this film: First of all because of the clear, beautiful transfer that allows us to see the film as almost brand new and observes the many details that we used to miss with inferiors video transfers or even with bad screening prints. Secondly, with the many added information which were selected not with simple-minded cinephilic admiration to the filmmaker, but with a sober intellectual mind of really apreciating the film itself. And also, the handsome jacket design is quite nice.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest film ever made.
Review: You think 'Casablanca' is good? You ain't seen nothing. Did 'It's a Wonderful Life' move you? Prepare to be blown away, my friends, by the greatest movie experience of a lifetime. The end. Fin. Nothing more to be said. Buy it.