Cheap The Rules of the Game - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Nora Gregor, Marcel Dalio) (Jean Renoir) Price

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Renoir's vision of the disappearing French aristocracy...
Rules of the Game is a film that displays the dishonesty of the French aristocracy and the rules that they play by in order to remain in good standards with their upper class. It begins with André, a heroic pilot, that has crossed the Atlantic in order to display his love for Christine. However, André is rejected by Christine as she does not appear when he lands on French soil. Christine's husband, Robert, is attempting to put an end to a long love affair with his mistress, but is incapable of breaking up the affair. The four of them are united with a large group of aristocrats at their chateau for a weekend hunting party and this is where the game truly begins and the rules are set into action, which are even mimicked by the servants. Rules of the Game is directed by the cinematic genius Renoir and this shines through in this film as the story unfolds. It should also be mentioned that this film nearly got destroyed during World War II, but was reconstructed in 1959 in order for coming generations to be able to view Renoir's vision of the disappearing French aristocracy.

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The Game Rules
"The Rules of the Game" directed by Jean Renoir is now ranked #1 on many film critic lists. Renior built a comedy of manners around old stories. When this film was viewed in Paris in 1939 there was a near riot. The critics hated it for political reasons, but also because characters were walking about the Chateau at amazing speed and angles. If you don't understand the history of the beginnings of WW2, then all will be lost on your Philistine soul. Somehow in an upstairs-downstairs comedy, Renior has described the failed French society. I'll describe the plot concept using English names. Randy, the aviator loves the rich lady, Christine. She's not French; she's Viennese (the only outsider). He's a romantic fool, she's an innocent compared to the Parisian women like Clair, the sophisticated lover of Christine's husband, the Count. Renior plays Alph, a court jester character and friend of Christine from the old days. He's a failed musician. He's also Randy's best friend. The French Count is played by a Jewish actor (which was a scandal in itself considering the anti-Semitism in Europe) So they all leave Paris and go to the country estate of the Count where we meet the servants of the Chateau. Christine's maid, Crystal is playing around with Alph and the newly hired rabbit poacher Jimmy. The gamekeeper, the cuckold Paul chases the amorous Jimmy around the Chateau with a gun for the next forty minutes. All the lovers and friends switch partners amidst declarations of love, slaughter of animals, and fist fights. In the end, noone is in love with anyone and all of society is concerned with the game, which is where he or she were in the first place. Truth is not a concern and the masterpiece is complete.

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One of the greatest movie ever. Hardly.
Let's see. We have an aldulterer, a cheat, a liar, a slut & a guy with anger management issues. They all exist in this ultra chic, super rich sub-culture. If such a time (the 30's) & place ever existed it is easy to see why the French lost to the Germans, one year after this movie was actually made.
It is of course a satire & a pretty good one at that. The host, of a weekend hunting party has a mistress. He is afraid his wife is going have an affair with the another guest a hero flyer a la Charles Lindberg. But she has other admirers as well. My favorite character is the slut, the maid whose new husband take exception to her behavior. The whole mess is overseen by Jean Renoir, the director, who is also a major player in the movie itself. Eventually there is a murder. I won't tell who is murdered or who the murderer is here. On the dvd there is an alternate ending. A shorter version of the last scenes came out in 1959. This imparts a totally different context from the original which was banned in 1939. It is well done & gives different meanings to the motives of all involved. The major drawback is it is in French with English subtitles. But you'd want to pay strict attention to this one in any case.