The Rules of the Game

Last Friday night, we finished my birthday film festival with Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. This film has a checkered past. It was originally released on World War II's eve and the original negatives were destroyed during the war. When it premiered, it was a critical and commercial failure the likes of which Renoir had never seen (the Criterion DVD contains an introduction by Renoir in which he states that one audience member methodically took out a matchbook, lit a match, held it to his newspaper until it caught on fire, and attempted to burn down the theater). He then re-cut and re-released the film several times so there are numerous editions available (the current Criterion DVD runs longer than the original theatrical release!) Yet in spite of these problems, The Rules of the Game is ranked consistently in the top ten films of all time by critics and directors around the world.

The film is the original manor house farce a la Gosford Park (in fact, Altman claimed to have learned how to film his movie by watching Renoir's). Renoir constructed a biting critique of the rampant decadence he saw among all levels of French society by having members of every social level, from servant to master, stretch loyalty to self, marriage, and friendship to the breaking point and laugh off the repercussions. It goes so far that when the climatic murder occurs, the owner of the country estate remarks on how sad it all is and then casually suggests everyone forget the incident and go back to bed.

I appreciate all that Renoir accomplished with this movie. There is a tremendous amount of activity in the plot, and many storylines are forwarded in the background of the scene, so there are layers and layers to peel back. This movie would definitely reward repeated viewings. Yet Renoir keeps it all flowing effortlessly and you never sense the movie creaking under its own pretensions. His directorial skill alone makes it worth viewing.

But overall, I was not engaged with the film. I think I would have enjoyed the film more if the subtitles had been legible, a strange lapse for Criterion, a company that usually provides outstanding transfers and subtitles. Since so much of the film is visual, and I spent most of the time struggling to read, never achieving the flow of reading and watching I usually do with foreign films, I missed much and became frustrated. Still, I'm glad I saw the movie and it was a good way to end an interesting week. Tomorrow I'll post a bit on my impressions after this experience, but for now I have cake to finish!