Jean Renoir

The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game

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.

Share

Film Info

  • Jean Renoir
  • France
  • 1939
  • 106 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • French
  • Spine #216

Special Features

  • High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Introduction to the film by director Jean Renoir
  • Audio commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • Comparison of the film's two endings
  • Selected-scene analysis by Renoir historian Chris Faulkner
  • Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La Règle et l’exception (1966), a French television program by filmmaker Jacques Rivette
  • Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by film critic David Thompson
  • Video essay about the film’s production, release, and 1959 reconstruction
  • Interview with film critic Olivier Curchod
  • Interview from a 1965 episode of the French television series Les écrans de la ville in which Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand discuss their reconstruction and rerelease of the film
  • Interviews with set designer Max Douy, Renoir’s son, Alain; and actress Mila Parély
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Sesonske; writings by Jean Renoir, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bertrand Tavernier, and François Truffaut; and tributes to the film by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman, and others

    New cover by Edward Sorel

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Special Features

  • High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Introduction to the film by director Jean Renoir
  • Audio commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • Comparison of the film's two endings
  • Selected-scene analysis by Renoir historian Chris Faulkner
  • Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La Règle et l’exception (1966), a French television program by filmmaker Jacques Rivette
  • Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by film critic David Thompson
  • Video essay about the film’s production, release, and 1959 reconstruction
  • Interview with film critic Olivier Curchod
  • Interview from a 1965 episode of the French television series Les écrans de la ville in which Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand discuss their reconstruction and rerelease of the film
  • Interviews with set designer Max Douy, Renoir’s son, Alain; and actress Mila Parély
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Sesonske; writings by Jean Renoir, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bertrand Tavernier, and François Truffaut; and tributes to the film by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman, and others

    New cover by Edward Sorel
The Rules of the Game
Cast
Marcel Dalio
Marquis Robert de La Chesnaye
Nora Gregor
Christine de La Chesnaye
Roland Toutain
André Jurieux
Jean Renoir
Octave
Mila Parély
Geneviève de Marras
Odette Talazac
Charlotte de La Plante
Pierre Magnier
The general
Pierre Nay
M. de Saint-Aubin
Richard Francœur
La Bruyère
Claire Gérard
Mme La Bruyère
Anne Mayen
Jackie
Paulette Dubost
Lisette
Gaston Modot
Schumacher
Julien Carette
Marceau
Eddy Debray
Corneille
Léon Larive
Cook
Lise Élina
Radio reporter
Henri Cartier-Bresson
English domestic
Credits
Director
Jean Renoir
Producer
Claude Renoir Sr.
Screenplay
Jean Renoir
with the collaboration of
Carl Koch
Dialogue
Jean Renoir
Assistant director
André Zwobada
Assistant director
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Director of photography
Jean Bachelet
Cinematography
Jacques Lemare
Cinematography
Jean-Paul Alphen
Cinematography
Alain Renoir
Production design
Eugène Lourié
Production design
Max Douy
Editing
Marguerite Renoir
Assistant editor
Marthe Huguet
Sound
Joseph de Bretagne
Still photography
Sam Lévin
Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Music
Monsigny
Music
Salabert
Music
Saint-Saëns
Music
Chopin
Music arranged by
Roger Désormière
Music arranged by
Joseph Kosma
Production manager
Pillon
Administration
Camille François
Costumes
Chanel

Related Films

1/5
2/5
3/5
4/5
5/5

From The Current

The Rules of the Game: Everyone Has Their Reasons
The Rules of the Game: Everyone Has Their Reasons
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 atmosphere, Jean Renoir, anticipating war and deeply tr…

By Alexander Sesonske

Essays — Nov 16, 2011
Renoir’s Roundelay in Massachusetts

Repertory Picks

Renoir’s Roundelay in Massachusetts

A shining model of humanism in cinema, The Rules of the Game screens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, accompanied by a talk with a noted scholar.

In Theaters — Mar 14, 2019
Staging in Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game
Staging in Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game
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 views its characters. Set just before the start of Wo…
On the Channel — May 29, 2017
Visiting Blow-Up Locations, Rushmore Enters the National Film Registry, a Scorsese Exhibition

Did You See This?

Visiting Blow-Up Locations, Rushmore Enters the National Film Registry, a Scorsese Exhibition
Short Takes — Dec 16, 2016
Renoir in Minneapolis

Repertory Picks

Renoir in Minneapolis
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 thematic precursor to The Rules of the Game, which wa…
In Theaters — Dec 15, 2016
Alan Arkin’s Top 10
Alan Arkin’s Top 10
— Jul 6, 2016
André Gregory and Wallace Shawn’s Top 10
André Gregory and Wallace Shawn’s Top 10
— Jun 25, 2015
James Schamus’s Top 10
James Schamus’s Top 10
— Apr 24, 2014
Roger Corman’s Top 10
Roger Corman’s Top 10
— Jul 30, 2013
Sight & Sound Poll 2012: The Rules of the Game
Sight & Sound Poll 2012: The Rules of the Game
Every ten years since 1952, the world-renowned film magazine Sight & Sound has polled a wide international selection of film critics and directors on what they consider to be the ten greatest works of …
Short Takes — Oct 18, 2012
Three and a Half Minutes in Heaven with Wim
Three and a Half Minutes in Heaven with Wim
Closet Picks — Jan 10, 2012
The Rules of the Game: Tributes
The Rules of the Game: Tributes
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 edition.   Paul Schrader, Writer-Director The Rules of …
Features — Nov 16, 2011
John Bailey’s Top 10
John Bailey’s Top 10
— May 19, 2011
Angus MacLachlan’s Top 10
Angus MacLachlan’s Top 10
— Nov 4, 2010
The Rules According to Bertolucci
The Rules According to Bertolucci
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 lovingly of Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, whose impa…
Short Takes — Mar 3, 2010
Michael Atkinson’s Top 10
Michael Atkinson’s Top 10
— Feb 17, 2010
Leanne Shapton’s Top 10
Leanne Shapton’s Top 10
— Nov 21, 2008
David Schwartz’s Top 10
David Schwartz’s Top 10
— Nov 21, 2008
Dennis Lehane’s Top 10
Dennis Lehane’s Top 10
— Nov 21, 2008
Christa Lang-Fuller’s Top 10
Christa Lang-Fuller’s Top 10
— Nov 20, 2008
Matt Dentler’s Top 10
Matt Dentler’s Top 10
— Nov 20, 2008
Allan Arkush’s Top 10
Allan Arkush’s Top 10
— Nov 19, 2008

Explore

Jean Renoir

Writer, Director

Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir

The son of the great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir was also a master of his medium: cinema. After making his mark in the early thirties with two very different films, the anarchic send-up of the bourgeoisie Boudu Saved from Drowning and the popular-front Gorky adaptation The Lower Depths, Renoir closed out the decade with two critical humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made: Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game (the former was celebrated in its time, but the latter was trashed by critics and audiences—until history provided vindication). After a brief, unfulfilling Hollywood stint during World War II, Renoir traveled to India to make his first Technicolor film, The River, and then returned to Europe in the early fifties to direct three visually dazzling explorations of theater, The Golden Coach, French Cancan, and Elena and Her Men. Renoir persisted in his cinematic pursuits until the late sixties, when, after the completion of The Little Theater of Jean Renoir, a collection of three short films, he decided to dedicate himself solely to writing, leaving the future of the medium to those who looked to him in reverence.

More Jean Renoir View All