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Sick Product of a Sick System

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Renoir was a master of satire. RULES OF THE GAME is a film that ridicules perhaps one social class with superb attention. High Society is always an interesting topic. The story is simple with an incredible number of complications. The topic at one point harmless, but in the second very dangerous. Of course, the director felt it on his own skin. The film is present and a dose of absurdity that in some scenes touching the point of madness and obsession. The picture is from the very beginning "blurred", just like the future of the characters. Anyone can ask what the surface is, and what depth of meaning? The area is regulated high society in which all polite, friendly and smiling. Probably too much. Depth is a farce in which they live wives, husbands, lovers, adulterers, servants, masters, informers and observers. In essence, everyone respects the rules of the game, they all misunderstood, unhappy and unfulfilled. All are persistent in the general chaos until it happens, let's say ... a murder. False sense of high society is a constant on the surface. Always!Given the period in which the film was created, anyone can conclude that Renoir consciously risked. Renoir 'attitude can be interpreted in several ways, but one thing is certain ... the director in his intention was damn honest. Death is in the film is described as a senseless, heartless and cruel.Nora Gregor as Christine de la Chesnaye tries to follow her heart, violating the rules of the game. Roland Toutain as André Jurieux, an aviator in love with Christine and victim of the game that is jeopardized by his behavior. Marcel Dalio as Robert de la Chesnaye, Christine's husband and Geneviève's lover is torn between his own passions and woman he loves. Jean Renoir as Octave, an old friend of Christine's and friend of André is a sign of reason everyone except himself, because he is aware that it does not belong to that class, but for many reasons does not want out there. Other characters are fit in the game even though they do not understand.The game gives and takes, recognizes and denies, opens and closes, laugh and sad.

The movie takes the superficial form of a country house farce, at which wives and husbands, lovers and adulterers, masters and servants, sneak down hallways, pop up in each other's bedrooms and pretend that they are all proper representatives of a well-ordered society.All of this comes to a climax in the famous sequence of the house party, which includes an amateur stage performance put on for the entertainment of guests and neighbors. This sequence can be viewed time and again, to appreciate how gracefully Renoir moves from audience to stage to backstage to rooms and corridors elsewhere in the house, effortlessly advancing half a dozen courses of action, so that at one point during a moment of foreground drama a door in the background opens and we see the latest development in another relationship. It is interesting how little actual sexual passion is expressed in the movie. Schumacher the gamekeeper is eager to exercise his marital duties, but Lisette cannot stand his touch and prefers for him to stay in the country while she stays in town as Christine's maid. The aviator's love for Christine is entirely in his mind. The poacher Marceau would rather chase Lisette than catch her. Robert and his mistress Genevieve savor the act of illicit meetings more than anything they might actually do at them.It is indeed all a game, in which you may have a lover if you respect your spouse and do not make the mistake of taking romance seriously. The destinies of the gamekeeper and the aviator come together because they both labor under the illusion that they are sincere.The finished shot, ending with Robert's face, is a study in complexity, and Renoir says it may be the best shot he ever filmed. It captures the buried theme of the film: That on the brink of war they know what gives them joy but play at denying it, while the world around them is closing down joy, play and denial.

I am somewhat puzzled after having watched this acclaimed as a classical film. If this is supposed to be a comedy, it lacks any fun whatsoever, if it pretends to be a drama, it is hilarious, if it tries to be something in between, it just fully fails.A set of personages with intermingled love and friendship relationships that come from nowhere, develop without any sense in a series of ridiculous scenes, and end in... nothing at all. What's the point??. Not a single personage raises any sympathy or concern for him/her, no personage is developed so that you can understand his/her motivations and the reason why is behaving in such a senseless way (everybody does in the film).Is the film maybe a criticism against aristocracy/bourgeoisie?... if so I can't imagine a more clumsy way to do it!... Well, let's leave it at that. Mi first attempt with Jean Renoir, and for sure the last one!

Every bit the major player in film that his illustrious father Auguste was to Impressionism Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game may well be his finest work in a filmography (Boudu saved from Drowning, La Chienne, Grande Illusion, The Crimes of Monsieur Lange, La Bete Humaine) studded with classics. Made on the eve of Europe going dark for the war's duration it failed to catch on in it's initial release with the public or critics but eventually grew in reputation over the years where it consistently finishes near the top in annual critics polls as one of the finest films ever made. They'll get no argument from me.Aviator Andre Jurieux has just pulled off a remarkable and dangerous Trans Atlantic flight but rather than bask in the adulation chooses to lash out at no show Christine, a married aristocrat, who he claims inspired him to risk all for her. Even with the scandal flashed across the airwaves her gadget loving Marquis husband Robert (Marcel Dalio) is forgiving and for good reason since he has been carrying on an affair for some time with a family friend. Realizing what a fool he has made of himself Andre imposes on close friend Octave (Director Renoir) to get him an invite to the country estate of the Marquis and his wife to make up for his indecorous behavior and mingle with the upper crust at leisure for a week. The result is one tragic comic fiasco not only upstairs but also downstairs among the help who will inadvertently contribute mightily to the disaster. Rules of the Game is a magnificent parody of both dry wit and Feydeau farce. Renoirs jabs at present day upper class society and foibles are not slashing but subtle, his characters clueless and self absorbed but not cruelly malicious or overtly snobbish with both the Marquis and Christine confiding in a poacher and a maid respectively. It is this callous nature though that sets the stage for tragedy not just among the players but also as microcosm to events that will unfold within the year.Renoir mingles characters and relationships with casual precision moving the story along at a healthy pace with lengthy choreographed scenes involving a myriad of characters, all with healthy opinions and a touch of comic nuance to go along with it. He avoids overt caricature and humanizes the most egregious of his characters reserving judgment to make observations ("every man has his own reason") and in doing so holds up a mirror to a society on the verge of going over the edge with this remarkably perceptive testament of the times.