The Rules of the Game - Criterion Collection

Theatrical Release

January 1, 1939

DVD Release

April 8, 1950

Studio

Criterion

Rated

NR (Not Rated)

Directors

Jean Renoir

Actors

Julien Carette, Tony Corteggiani, Marcel Dalio, Eddy Debray, Paulette Dubost, Lise Elina, Richard Francoeur, Camille François, Nora Gregor, Claire Gérard, Jenny Hélia, Léon Larive, Pierre Magnier, Anne Mayen, Gaston Modot, Pierre Nay, Mila Parély, Jean Renoir, Odette Talazac, Roland Toutain

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Formats

• Black & White
• Color
• Special Edition
• Subtitled
• NTSC

Additional Information

Consistently cited by critics worldwide as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's bittersweet drama of life, love, class, and the social code of manners and behavior ("the rules of the game") is a savage critique undertaken with sensitivity and compassion. Renoir's catch-phrase through the film, "Everyone has their reasons," develops a multilayered meaning by the conclusion. A young aviator (Roland Toutain) commits a serious social faux pas by alluding to an affair on national radio. To avert a scandal, the cultured Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio), husband to the aviator's mistress, Christine (Nora Gregor), and a philanderer in his own right, invites all to a weekend hunting party in his country mansion. The complicated maze of marriages and mistresses (social register and servant class alike) is plotted like a bedroom farce, but the tone soon takes a darker cast. Renoir, who also takes the pivotal role as Andre's jovial pal and de la Chesnaye confidant Octave, deftly blends high comedy with cutting satire as he parallels the upstairs-downstairs affairs. The film builds to a comic pitch with the hilarious performance of Julien Carette as a rabbit poacher turned groundskeeper, but soon turns tragic in a devastating conclusion. The film was roundly condemned and banned in France upon its 1939 release, but years later (out of the shadow of WWII) the film was rediscovered for the masterpiece that it is. --Sean Axmaker - Amazon.com essential video

Jean Renoir's 1939 classic is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, and Criterion is very proud to present the film in a special two-disc edition. Cloaked in a comedy of manners, this scathing critique of corrupt French society is about a weekend hunting party at which amorous escapades abound among the aristocratic guests-which are also mirrored by the activities of the servants downstairs. The refusal of one of the guests to play by society's rules sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. - Description