Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

ElMaruecan82 After landing on the Bourget airfield, André Jurieu (Roland Toutain) is celebrated like the French Lindberg by a cheerful crowd, a radio reporter, political representatives and his best friend Octave (Jean Renoir) but his joy instantly fades into bitterness when he realizes his beloved Christine is missing. André publicly shares his sorrow, calling her a liar, a move Octave will deem as puerile. The genius opening of Renoir's "Rules of the Game", made at the dawn of World War 2, less establishes the titular rules than one who's not part of it. André is the ultimate romantic, risking his life for a woman and embodying this magnificent saying from romantic writer Lamartine's: "One person is missing and the whole word seems depopulated". There's no place for romanticism in Renoir's masterpiece that borrows more from "The Marriage of Figaro", written by Marivaux. Marivaux gave his name to the French term: marivaudage, meaning 'little games of love', like a lighthearted way to call gallantries. The film even sets the tone by opening with Marivaux' lines: "If Cupid was given wings, was it not to flitter?" And boy, will Cupid flitter. I defy anyone to find a movie with as many layers of love and potential romances, you wouldn't even guess who'd end up with whom. To make it simple, there is only André and another schmuck of 'exclusive' heart: the gamekeeper Schumacher (Gaston Modot, of Bunuel's "Age d'Or") is married to Lisette (Paulette Dubost) the chambermaid of Christine. It's interesting that the scene following the opening features these poor guys' women.Christine (Nora Gregor) is an Austrian married to a rich aristocrat named Robert de la Chastenaye and played by Marcel Dalio (he was Rosenthal, the rich Jew of "Grand Illusion"). She and Lisette talk about their marriage and lovers, without guilt, Lisette has fully embraced her milieu's manners and believes she gives men what they want. Later, Marceau (Julien Carrette), a poacher despised by Schumacher but hired as a servant by Robert, flirts with her, and this little subplot converge with the first triangular love into the unexpectedly tragic ending.And the central piece of this vaudeville is the marquis Robert, a compromising and mild- mannered man whose personality gets more enigmatic as the plot moves. His answer to the aviator's affair is to invite his mistress Genevieve (Mila Parely) in the castle with the other guests. Octave approves the decision because he needs Christine to get in André's arms. Robert's sense of etiquette and class are often praised (generally as a contrast to his ethnic background) but he's also capable of making surprising moves, like hiring Shumacher's rival, and inviting his mistress and his rival, to give everyone's a chance.And when all the pieces of the game have been placed, "The Rules of the Games" blossoms as one of the most bizarrely entertaining social commentaries about a class totally disconnected from the world. If not a study, this is a real slap in the face of the social conventions that prevailed in the bourgeois class. Everything has been said about the infamous hunting game where beaters walk across the forest to make the poor rabbits and pheasants hide in the meadow and become the perfect target to the hunters. An exercise in cruelty sublimated by the contrasts between the purity of animals and the mechanical gestures. The same goes for love: it's purity vs. mechanics. It's fitting that Robert is a collector of mechanical musical toys. Many scenes feature men fooling around with Lisette (Octave, Marceau) as soon as the music from the radio starts the girl plays 'hard to get' and the guy chases her… and that's all, it's boring as soon as it becomes sincere. And this all comes down to an extraordinary climax where all these mechanics are played together and the players seem to play hide-and-seek with the camera and the jealous husbands or lovers, while the very director, wearing a bear suit is disoriented as if he was overwhelmed by the genius disorder he created. And the dance macabre goes on playing as the dark omen of the tragic finale to come: the death of Andre, ironically shot by his counterpart Schumacher.The tragic irony of André is that when he had the one opportunity to flee with Christine, to be fully romantic but he stayed because of good manners. Schumacher mistaking him for Octave and Christine for Lisette, shoots Andre like the rabbits the day earlier, the purity of love has been terminated. And the mechanisms of the bourgeois life cover the crime: Robert forgives his gamekeeper and invites his guest to come to the castle, one man has been sacrificed on the altar of this nonsense, but the honor is safe. And this is where Renoir hits the sensitive chord, after having sublimated the end of era from military gentlemen's perspective in "Grand Illusion", this is the decadent and self-conscious bourgeoisie that contributed to the collapse of the world.The film was ill-received at the time of its release but it's hard to root for the same society that'd make so much 'bad moves' during the War, it's only after France had come to terms with its own past, and when the final cut, reassembled in 1959 was projected, that they saw Renoir was ahead of his time, and his film became an instant milestone on filmmaking like Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane". The two movies, if anything, have transcended the use of filmmaking for the storytelling. Through his deep focus shots, his revolutionary uses of movements in the backgrounds, so many things happen in this film you're likely to miss them at first, second or third viewing and at the end. The reason is that there's no main protagonist, and each viewing makes you realize they all had their reasons, and as Octave says, that's the awful thing about life.And that's the great thing about "The Rules Of the Game".

elvircorhodzic 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.

OJT This farce about love, flirtation and decadence in the upper class society was too much for the rich and famous when this Jean Renoir film premiered in France before the outbreak of the second world war in 1939. The film got bad reviews, and some of the angry viewers trashed interiors, and on of the premiere cinemas was fire lit with a newspaper by an angry cinema goer. Obviously one from the aristocracy, and no wonder they were upset. Because in this film Renoir ridicules the rich and famous in a way that must have been provocative.After a rather insightful, but still rather static start, where we get to see the importance if radio and mechanical playing dolls and music boxes, leading up to when we meet the whole ensemble at a big mansion party, where also a madly-in-love pilot is maneuvered in thanks to help from a friend. The weekend is about hunting rabbits and women, and eventually men. The film winds up like a bad party, with crying and a messy love/jealousy lite night when the whole party is going to pieces. Still it ends, in a way, quite happy.The film is, of course, very 1939, but has remarkable quality, though it was thought lost, as both the original rolls were bombed to bits during the war, as well as most copies were burnt both by the French haters, as well as the German occupiers the following years. They also hated the film for more than one reason. Some copies was found 17 years later, which made it possible to restore all, except one scene, according to Renoir himself.The film ridicules also the light hearted and easily scared and hysterical women (this is why women tend to like this film less than men), though it's really the men which I think come out silly here, the Jews and also have a couple of other things we today actually would find non appropriate. But then this was back in 1939.Jean Renoir plays one of the more significant roles himself, as the guy bounding the whole charade together. It's easy to see this film has influenced many later film makers and novel writers in many countries. I find many scenes which resembles scenes I've seen before in films which has come out far later. I would even count in late films like Von Triers "Melancholy" and some of the great ensemble films by Robert Altman. So you could surely say this is essential, and is also often used as a film reference for film students.After the slow start, the film really rolls on to be significant and a cut above most if the Hollywood films from the same time era. The instruction and acting is the thing assuring this. It doesn't hurt that the film was regarded as a provocation to the rich back then, and the same to the Nazis. A classic!

jc-osms There's always fascination in getting a look behind the doors of a stately house, to see how the other half live as it were and on the evidence of Renoir's celebrated "eve of war" movie, it's a place better to visit than inhabit.There's always the feeling however, that like dancing on the edge of a cliff tragedy will eventually overtake these merry pranksters and so it proves. However, even when it does, everyone seems to accept it as almost an occupational hazard,shrug their shoulders and move on.That shouldn't be surprising given what's gone before though as the myriad characters above and below stairs interact in a social and sexual comedy of manners. Renoir sets women at the centre of the maelstrom, firstly Lady Christine, a bored intellectual society wife, torn between three lovers, including her husband, whose own mistress struggles to come to terms with his leaving her after a long-standing affair, while Christine's maid, the coquettish Lizette plays fast and loose with her big lunk of a husband by flirting outrageously with the domestic staff's new recruit, the poacher and unwittingly sets in motion the tragedy that follows.I enjoyed the drama despite some longeurs, only natural in such an old film, but I was certainly intrigued enough by the characters and their very fluid situations to keep watching throughout. All of the actors seem excellent to me, particularly Nora Gregor, who has a vaguely Garbo-like demeanour and Paulette Dubost as Lisette, who recalls her namesake Paulette Goddard with her sprightliness and general joie-de-vivre. Of the male actors, I most felt the presence of Jean Renoir as the lovable but hapless Octave, the unwitting accomplice to the murder of playboy Jurieux.Yes, it's dated to some extent and some of the allegory is a touch strained at times, but I found this a fascinating social document on the lifestyles of the rich and famous c.1939 and to be truthful, one never knows when it will prove to be topical again.