Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir, is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners in which a weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances. The film has had a tumultuous history: it was subjected to cuts after the violent response of the premiere audience in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II; it wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here.
| Marquis Robert de La Chesnaye | Marcel Dalio |
| Christine de La Chesnaye | Nora Gregor |
| André Jurieux | Roland Toutain |
| Octave | Jean Renoir |
| Geneviève de Marras | Mila Parély |
| Charlotte de La Plante | Odette Talazac |
| The general | Pierre Magnier |
| M. de Saint-Aubin | Pierre Nay |
| La Bruyère | Richard Francœur |
| Mme La Bruyère | Claire Gérard |
| Jackie | Anne Mayen |
| Lisette | Paulette Dubost |
| Schumacher | Gaston Modot |
| Marceau | Julien Carette |
| Corneille | Eddy Debray |
| Cook | Léon Larive |
| Radio reporter | Lise Élina |
| English domestic | Henri Cartier-Bresson |
| Director | Jean Renoir |
| Producer | Claude Renoir Sr. |
| Screenplay | Jean Renoir |
| with the collaboration of | Carl Koch |
| Dialogue | Jean Renoir |
| Assistant director | André Zwobada and Henri Cartier-Bresson |
| Director of photography | Jean Bachelet |
| Cinematography | Jacques Lemare, Jean-Paul Alphen and Alain Renoir |
| Production design | Eugène Lourié and Max Douy |
| Editing | Marguerite Renoir |
| Assistant editor | Marthe Huguet |
| Sound | Joseph de Bretagne |
| Still photography | Sam Lévin |
| Music | Mozart, Monsigny, Salabert, Saint-Saëns and Chopin |
| Music arranged by | Roger Désormière and Joseph Kosma |
| Production manager | Pillon |
| Administration | Camille François |
| Costumes | Chanel |
May 29, 2017
A biting satire of haute-bourgeois French society, Jean Renoir’s 1939 The Rules of the Game is beloved for the intricacy of its construction and the mixture of tenderness and irony with which it . . . Read more »
November 16, 2011
The Rules of the Game is one of the best-loved films of all time. The following is a selection of tributes to it from writers and directors, originally included in the 2004 Criterion DVD . . . Read more »
By November 15, 2011
By February 1939, it no longer seemed evident that the surrender of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler at Munich had “saved the peace.” A sense of doom was beginning to hang over Europe. In this . . . Read more »
November 17, 2010
Our friend and coworker Sarah Finklea, of Janus Films, was one of a handful of industry experts asked by Moviemaker magazine to participate in an online roundtable about the importance and . . . Read more »
By November 15, 2011
By February 1939, it no longer seemed evident that the surrender of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler at Munich had “saved the peace.” A sense of doom was beginning to hang over Europe. In this . . . Read more »
May 29, 2017
A biting satire of haute-bourgeois French society, Jean Renoir’s 1939 The Rules of the Game is beloved for the intricacy of its construction and the mixture of tenderness and irony with which it . . . Read more »
December 16, 2016
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Adam Scovell visited the film’s unforgettable London locations. Another masterpiece made half a century ago is . . . Read more »
December 15, 2016
This weekend, Jean Renoir’s La chienne will screen at the Trylon microcinema, in Minneapolis, as part of a monthlong series dedicated to the French master’s groundbreaking work in the 1930s. A . . . Read more »
November 16, 2011
The Rules of the Game is one of the best-loved films of all time. The following is a selection of tributes to it from writers and directors, originally included in the 2004 Criterion DVD . . . Read more »
By November 15, 2011
By February 1939, it no longer seemed evident that the surrender of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler at Munich had “saved the peace.” A sense of doom was beginning to hang over Europe. In this . . . Read more »
November 17, 2010
Our friend and coworker Sarah Finklea, of Janus Films, was one of a handful of industry experts asked by Moviemaker magazine to participate in an online roundtable about the importance and . . . Read more »
March 03, 2010
The Guardian has begun an exciting new short essay series called The Film That Changed My Life, and the first entry brings together two titans of cinema history. Bernardo Bertolucci writes . . . Read more »
2 Discs
SRP: $29.95
Criterion Store price:$23.96
