The Rules of the Game

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME is a devastating satire of the pre-WWII French aristocracy. Starring Marcel Dalio as wealthy landowner Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye, it charts the shifting relationships among the guests at a weekend hunting party on his vast estate. The guest list includes Robert's mistress Genevieve (Mila Parely), from whom he's trying to part, and Andre Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a famed aviator who is in love with Robert's wife, Christine (Nora Gregor). As they begin a dizzy dance of escape and pursuit, their games are observed and echoed by the servants below the stairs. The gamekeeper Schumacher (Gaston Modot) is trying to keep the poacher, Marceau (Julien Carette), from poaching on his pretty wife, Lisette (Paulette Dubost), unaware that his boss also has his eye on her. The passionate Jurieu, the only guest incapable of the appropriate hypocrisy, finds Christine in an embrace with a random lover (Pierre Nay), and the startled woman decides to leave Robert and go away with the aviator. Renoir's subtle deployment of long tracking shots in multiplanar deep focus reveals the relations of both groups and individuals as he dismantles the rituals of hypocrisy that make this society run smoothly.

Cast:

"...Jean Renoir's masterpiece -- the daddy of ensemble movies. An illustrious antecedent to Altman's GOSFORD PARK..." -- Daniel Webb , (Total Film)

"...Renoir includes elements of Feydeau-like farce, but there's also an air of melancholy..." -- Geoffrey Macnab , (Sight and Sound)

"Quite simply one of the greatest films ever made." -- Mike Flaherty , (Entertainment Weekly)

"Humor, poignancy and social criticism converge for an even better movie than the recent one it brings to mind: GOSFORD PARK." -- Mike Clark , (USA Today)

"[R]emarkably fluid and entertaining. It boasts impeccable performances....Essential." -- Glenn Kenny , (Premiere)

"Renoir's staging set the tone for Altman and everyone else -- action that spills in three directions at once." -- Grade: A -- Owen Gleiberman , (Entertainment Weekly)

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