Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game has been part of the film canon for so long that it’s valuable to remind audiences how gloriously alive and just plain fun it is. Low comedy walks hand and hand with tragedy and beauty throughout the film, which is frothy one minute, nearly apocalyptic the next—and so you’re never fully allowed to gather your bearings. It has a tone that could be symbolized by the escalating merry-go-round that prominently plays into the climax of Strangers on a Train—up and down, all around and seemingly totally out of control. The film, as Paul Schrader says in this Criterion edition’s liner notes, represents all of cinema’s possibilities in 106 minutes.
That controlled chaos is partially driven by anger and despair. Renoir often said that the film was a response to his frustrations with the bourgeoisie at a time...
That controlled chaos is partially driven by anger and despair. Renoir often said that the film was a response to his frustrations with the bourgeoisie at a time...
- 7/5/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
"Let the game begin." Janus Films has revealed a brand new trailer for the 4K restoration and re-release of the Jean Renoir 1939 classic The Rules of the Game, considered one of the best films ever made despite opening to very negative reviews. The film depicts members of upper-class French society and their servants just before the beginning of World War II, showing their moral callousness on the eve of destruction. At la Colinière, the deceptively idyllic country estate of a wealthy Parisian aristocrat, a selection of society’s finest gather for a rural sojourn and shooting party, and reveal themselves to be absurdly, almost primitively, cruel and vapid. Starring Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, and Pierre Magnier. The film received terribly negative reviews and even provoked near riots in Paris upon its initial release. As a result, Renoir cut 23 minutes from the film at the time.
- 12/22/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy with Fred Astaire - Stanley Donen's Funny Face
Spring in New York comes alive with Haute Couture on Film featuring the work of Hubert de Givenchy in Stanley Donen's Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson, presented by Eye For Film's Anne-Katrin Titze on April 7.
See creations by Pierre Cardin in Jacques Demy's Bay Of Angels (La Baie Des Anges) with Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers and Henri Nassiet. Emanuel Ungaro made the clothes for Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' Gloria with Julie Carmen and Buck Henry. Coco Chanel in Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game (La Règle Du Jeu) dressed Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély and Odette Talazac. Be dazzled by Christian Dior in Jean Negulesco's How To Marry A Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall. Yves Saint Laurent's...
Spring in New York comes alive with Haute Couture on Film featuring the work of Hubert de Givenchy in Stanley Donen's Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson, presented by Eye For Film's Anne-Katrin Titze on April 7.
See creations by Pierre Cardin in Jacques Demy's Bay Of Angels (La Baie Des Anges) with Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers and Henri Nassiet. Emanuel Ungaro made the clothes for Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' Gloria with Julie Carmen and Buck Henry. Coco Chanel in Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game (La Règle Du Jeu) dressed Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély and Odette Talazac. Be dazzled by Christian Dior in Jean Negulesco's How To Marry A Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall. Yves Saint Laurent's...
- 4/1/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Rules of the Game
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Jean Renoir
France, 1939
F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously wrote in his 1925 short story, Rich Boy, that “the rich are different from you and me”, to which Ernest Hemingway trenchantly retorted, “yes, they have more money”.
Under the simplicity of this quote and counter-quote parley hides a grain of truth inherent to both. Yes, the rich have more money, and for that very reason, they live differently from the rest of society. With their abundant riches and excess wealth, they can afford to do things most others cannot. For one, they can afford to play games.
Fitzgerald himself masterfully portrayed the hedonistic lifestyles of the rich and famous in The Great Gatsby, and in the realm of literature, it lacks a suitable rival in that regard. But in cinema, the very same notions and ideas were also well accomplished by the storied French filmmaker,...
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Jean Renoir
France, 1939
F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously wrote in his 1925 short story, Rich Boy, that “the rich are different from you and me”, to which Ernest Hemingway trenchantly retorted, “yes, they have more money”.
Under the simplicity of this quote and counter-quote parley hides a grain of truth inherent to both. Yes, the rich have more money, and for that very reason, they live differently from the rest of society. With their abundant riches and excess wealth, they can afford to do things most others cannot. For one, they can afford to play games.
Fitzgerald himself masterfully portrayed the hedonistic lifestyles of the rich and famous in The Great Gatsby, and in the realm of literature, it lacks a suitable rival in that regard. But in cinema, the very same notions and ideas were also well accomplished by the storied French filmmaker,...
- 7/4/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
The Rules of the Game Directed by: Jean Renoir Written by: Jean Renoir Starring: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain, Jean Renoir This week I finally caught up with a movie that many consider to be one of the greatest films in the history of cinema; Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. While I'm not sure it would top my own personal list of all-time favourites, it's certainly a fantastic piece of cinema that's full of humour, drama, and some wonderful characters. The film begins with a radio broadcaster interviewing aviator André Jurieux, who'd just landed after accomplishing a record setting flight around the world. His friend Octave (played by Jean Renoir) informs André that the woman for which he dedicated his flight didn't show up to greet him. We eventually learn that Christine, the woman over which André is obsessing, is actually the wife of an aristocrat named Robert de la Cheyniest.
- 11/29/2011
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
Hitting movie theaters this weekend:
Happy Feet Two - Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Movie of the Week
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The Plot: The Quileute and the Volturi close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses different threats to the wolf pack and vampire coven.
The Buzz: The only drawback to having to choose a movie of the week becomes apparent on weeks such as this one, wherein I have absolutely zero interest in any of the new releases. First of all, I hated what I saw of the first Happy Feet, and the trailer for Happy Feet Two advertises a film which looks to be about as bearable as swallowing a glass full of shards of glass. And so, the...
Happy Feet Two - Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Movie of the Week
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The Plot: The Quileute and the Volturi close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses different threats to the wolf pack and vampire coven.
The Buzz: The only drawback to having to choose a movie of the week becomes apparent on weeks such as this one, wherein I have absolutely zero interest in any of the new releases. First of all, I hated what I saw of the first Happy Feet, and the trailer for Happy Feet Two advertises a film which looks to be about as bearable as swallowing a glass full of shards of glass. And so, the...
- 11/16/2011
- by Aaron Ruffcorn
- The Scorecard Review
Release Date: Nov. 15, 2011
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The lights burn brightly for the rich and the poor in The Rules of the Game.
A staple on all the “Greatest Films Ever Made” lists, Jean Renoir’s 1939 The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu) is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners.
Starring Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Marcel Dalio and Renoir himself, the comedy-drama movie is set during a weekend at a marquis’ countryside chateau filled with an assorted cast of characters — the rich and their poor servants — and lays bare some ugly truths about members of the haute bourgeois.
The Rules of the Game is a victim of tumultuous history. The movie was subjected to cuts after premiere audiences rejected it in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II. It wasn’t reconstructed until 1959 and it’s that version,...
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The lights burn brightly for the rich and the poor in The Rules of the Game.
A staple on all the “Greatest Films Ever Made” lists, Jean Renoir’s 1939 The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu) is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners.
Starring Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Marcel Dalio and Renoir himself, the comedy-drama movie is set during a weekend at a marquis’ countryside chateau filled with an assorted cast of characters — the rich and their poor servants — and lays bare some ugly truths about members of the haute bourgeois.
The Rules of the Game is a victim of tumultuous history. The movie was subjected to cuts after premiere audiences rejected it in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II. It wasn’t reconstructed until 1959 and it’s that version,...
- 8/17/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Cinema Retro has just received the following press release
Queens Theatre in the Park (Qtp) announces its 2009/2010 season of film. Qtp and the Museum of the Moving Image have partnered to present Moving Image Masterpieces, a series of six of the greatest films of all time at Qtp's home, a 464-seat auditorium at the former New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which also has a 99-seat performing arts space. The new series is programmed by David Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, who will introduce each screening: Citizen Kane, Metropolis, Rules of the Game, Toyko Story, 8 ½, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tickets are $10 per film ($8 multi-show discount).
Queens Theatre in the Park's2009-2010 Film Series includes:
Citizen Kane - Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 7:30pm
Directed by Orson Welles
With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead
Wunderkind director Orson Welles used Hollywood as his playground to make his astonishing film,...
Queens Theatre in the Park (Qtp) announces its 2009/2010 season of film. Qtp and the Museum of the Moving Image have partnered to present Moving Image Masterpieces, a series of six of the greatest films of all time at Qtp's home, a 464-seat auditorium at the former New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which also has a 99-seat performing arts space. The new series is programmed by David Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, who will introduce each screening: Citizen Kane, Metropolis, Rules of the Game, Toyko Story, 8 ½, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tickets are $10 per film ($8 multi-show discount).
Queens Theatre in the Park's2009-2010 Film Series includes:
Citizen Kane - Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 7:30pm
Directed by Orson Welles
With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead
Wunderkind director Orson Welles used Hollywood as his playground to make his astonishing film,...
- 10/1/2009
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
There's a common fallacy that anyone can review a film. But how can you do it if you don't have the proper tools to 'read' a film?
The rules of the game... Paulette Dubost and Nora Gregor in Renoir's La Règle du jeu.
Some years ago, when a veteran film critic on one of the quality dailies took his retirement, everyone expected his extremely competent young deputy to take over the job. However, this was not to be because, according to the editor of the paper, "he knows too much about cinema".
Continue reading...
The rules of the game... Paulette Dubost and Nora Gregor in Renoir's La Règle du jeu.
Some years ago, when a veteran film critic on one of the quality dailies took his retirement, everyone expected his extremely competent young deputy to take over the job. However, this was not to be because, according to the editor of the paper, "he knows too much about cinema".
Continue reading...
- 3/26/2007
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.