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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE RULES OF THE GAME
Disc Two: Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La Règle et l'exception, a French
television program directed by Jacques Rivette. Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993
BBC documentary by David Thompson. Production history video essay. Jean Gaborit and
Jacques Durand discussion on reconstruction and rerelease of the film. New Interviews with
Renoir's son, Alain, and Rules set designer Max Douy. 1995 interview with actress Mila Parély.
Written tributes by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader Wim Wenders and others. A 24-page booklet. English subtitles.
The film's introduction to the various characters is a somewhat
slow beginning, as none are particularly established as the central interest. Thus, each is
only a passing encounter. However, once the action commences at the château de La Colinière,
the countryside estate housing a weekend party for an aristocratic group of friends, the pace
quickens and refuses to slow down until the fateful end. The hunting scene, in which the guests
shoot down scampering rabbits and birds, remains the most captivating yet disturbing - hence the
most powerful - sequence in the entire film. A jealous husband's pursuit for his wife's slippery
lover becomes entangled with another adulterous chase around the mansion, resulting in a
slapstick jaunt that will eventually end with a murder. This is indicative of the film's seemingly
lighthearted approach to its more serious subject matter, constantly shifting from comedy to
tragedy. Having shown his filmmaking expertise behind the camera with his use of deep
focus and extended takes, Renoir is also a delight to watch in front of the camera, acting as the
loyal go-between Octave. While some of the other performances are a bit over-the-top as was the style at the time (especially Nora Grégor as Christine), the exaggerated
performances do not deter from the timeless quality of the film.
DVD Extras: This DVD, covering all aspects of the film from inception and production
to technical and historical merit, belongs on every film buff's shelf. The two-disc set provides a
breathtakingly comprehensive array of features worthy of Renoir's celebrated film. A BBC
documentary elegantly showcases the details of Renoir's early life and how the filmmaker was
influenced by the myriad of artists around him (including his father, the legendary Impressionist
painter Auguste Renoir). However, the most fascinating features are provided by Renoir historian
Christopher Faulkner. Renoir's control of movement and depth of field is a marvel deftly
explored in Faulkner's scene analysis, and Faulkner also closely examines the two endings of the
film, the 1939 original and the 1959 reconstruction. His analysis of editing changes and absent
scenes in the 1939 version reveals a much more cynical and unsympathetic portrayal of its
bourgeois players, somewhat exonerate the film's harsh reviews upon its opening. Despite its
negative reception and commercial failure 65 years ago, The Rules of the Game is now
considered by film critics to be one of the greatest films ever made, and Criterion won't let you
soon forget it. This is no more apparent than in "Tributes," a collection of writings by an
assembly of directors and scholars singing Renoir's praises, as well as in the accompanying DVD
booklet, containing more written tributes by François Truffaut, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and
Bertrand Tavernier. Kim Reyes, contributing editor
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On the surface, Jean Renoir's cinematic milestone appears to be just what its opening title card
declares: "A Whimsical Drama." But upon repeated viewing and closer inspection, this farcical
tale of marital infidelities - within the upper class clique, as well as among their equally
capricious servants - is a derisive social critique of an idle and corrupt French bourgeois society
on the verge of World War II.