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The Rules of the Game
(La Règle du jeu) |
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| Starring: Marcel Dalio, Nora Grégor, Roland Toutain,
Jean Renoir, Mila Parély, Odette Talazac, Pierre Magnier,
Pierre Nay, Richard Francoeur, Anne Mayen, Paulette Dubost,
Gaston Modot Directed by: Jean
Renoir |
Theatrical Release: 1939
DVD Release: 2004
Released by: The Criterion Collection Dolby Digital 1.0
Fullscreen |
Today The Rules of the Game is considered his
masterpiece. When it premiered, however, it was declared a disaster and was the cause of
riots. No doubt, Renoir simply hit too close to home. He set out to make a film that would
depict the decadent middle class that had begun to fester in France. Perhaps too many
filmgoers saw themselves in this movie, and were incensed.
Though Renoir despised this class of people, his film is
restrained in viewpoint. There are no big denouncement speeches; the director allows the
class to condemn itself by deed and action. It is a singular film that operates at many
different levels, switching from comedy to drama without missing a beat. What other film
has displayed such droll humor, punctuated with the violence of a bloody hunt, and ending
with a murder? Perhaps others have tried (see Gosford Park), but only Renoir
succeeds in marrying such disparate elements into a meaningful whole.
As the movie opens, a famous aviator has crossed the
Atlantic and landed in Paris. We learn he did it for the love of Christine de la Chesnaye.
A quick change of scene lets us know that Christine is seemingly happily married to the
Marquis de la Chesnaye, who proclaims himself an honest man. Yet another scene shows us
his mistress, Geneviève. An older man and pivotal character, Octave (played by Renoir
himself), also loves Christine. Cut to scenes with Lisette, where we find out that the
lower-class domestics also play their own romantic games. Everyone is assembled for the
weekend at the estate, La Colinère, where comedy gradually evolves into tragedy.
The film was so booed at its first showing that Renoir
quickly cut it, then cut it again to a version lasting only 81 minutes. In events fully
chronicled in the ancillary material on this set’s second disc, the movie was
painstakingly restored to 106 minutes. Criterion sets forth this longer version as the
main feature in an excellent print. There is some flicker in a few scenes, and a tear here
and there, but largely the movie looks fantastic for one 65 years old. The audio is also
excellent, often belying its optical origins.
One thing that must be said about Criterion extras is that
this pioneering company is still showing others how they should be done. The material in
the set constitutes a seminar on Renoir and this movie. First, one of the best comparison
sequences I have seen on DVD contrasts the endings of the longer and shorter versions of
the film. This is accomplished using split screen, freeze frame, fast-forward, and a very
knowing commentary.
A selected scene analysis goes into Renoir’s cinematic
composition in depth. The second disc offers Jean Renoir, an hour-long mesmerizing
documentary, originally shown on BBC television in 1993, which takes the viewer from
Renoir’s birth to just past The Rules of the Game. There are also excerpts
from a French television program on Renoir, aired in 1966. There are video essays on the
original production and the reconstruction, a series of interviews, as well as written
tributes to the film by the likes of François Truffaut, Wim Wenders, and Robert Altman.
The elaborate set is housed in a digipak foldout that fits into a clear blue plastic case
for safekeeping.
It’s a sure thing that a viewer will want to keep this
set safe, since it is the ultimate edition of a movie that many consider ultimate cinema. |
