La Règle du jeu (1939)

Huge-spirited and sharp-eyed, Jean Renoir’s French-society fresco gathers high classes and low for a weekend of country-house fallout.

Made on the cusp of WWII, Jean Renoir’s satire of the upper-middle classes was banned as demoralising by the French government for two decades after its release. Renoir, a director associated with the left wing Popular Front, turned his gaze away from working people to the haute bourgeoisie. Taking its cue from the classic stage farces of Musset and Beaumarchais, Renoir sets his action during a shooting weekend at a country house. It’s an upstairs-downstairs world where servants and masters become enmeshed in a tangle of desire, a jumble of motivations in which, in the film’s famous phrase, “Everyone has their reasons”. At the film’s centre is the amiable Octave (played by Renoir), whose best intentions lead to tragedy.

Shot in long, controlled takes that stress the depth of vision, Renoir’s depiction of an intransigent society teetering blithely into disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films.

“A lesson in life in every word of dialogue, a piece of cinema in every frame. The joy of seeing a movie was never as great as here.” João Antunes

“A merry-go-round of love and sorrow. A masterful comedy of manners replete with unexpected twists and turns.” Jan Olsson

“A stunning panorama of metropolitan and provincial, aristocrat and peasant, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, and a tale of two marriages that seems to sum up life in Europe just before World War II.” Carrie Rickey

“In this film we can find everything: the decadence of European culture before the war, the creative freedom of a film director both modern and primitive, the infinite potential of filming in deep-focus and long shots to grab and replicate the complexity, the openness, the elusiveness of reality.” Roberto Manassero

“Probably the best example of the Renoir style, combining graceful mise en scène, seamless plotting and the peerless command of cinematic technique.” Charles Ramírez Berg

“No more devastatingly ironic and subtle critique of wealth, power and privilege has ever been made. A great film by a committed activist filmmaker.” Ian Aitken

“Luminous, masterful filmmaking with a piercing melancholy.” Anupama Chopra

“Characters and events move between the foreground, middle ground and background through deep focus and long shots. A masterpiece that uses cinema as a playground.” Raymond Phatanavirangoon

“To be scathing and humanist and gentle at the same time, and tell your tale effortlessly – that’s Renoir’s genius. One of the world’s great filmmakers, and this is his greatest achievement.” Eddie Muller

“Deceptively light-handed charm throughout the upstairs, downstairs antics in a country house doesn’t obscure Jean Renoir’s contempt for the underlying darkness and his prescience of what was to imminently befall such people. Still delightful, perfectly on target and still imitated in film and television by people who possibly don’t even know they are doing it.” Angie Errigo

“Hands down the greatest film featuring a gorilla suit.” Michael Atkinson

1939 France
Directed by
Jean Renoir
Written by
Jean Renoir
Featuring
Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély
Running time
84 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for La Règle du jeu

Critics

Mo Abdi
Iran/UK
Ian Aitken
Hong Kong
Jason Anderson
Canada
Dudley Andrew
USA
João Antunes
Portugal
Álvaro Arroba
Spain
Michael Atkinson
USA
Vasco Baptista Marques
Portugal
Charles Barr
UK
João Pedro Bénard
Portugal
Ela Bittencourt
USA/Brazil
Ed Buscombe
UK
Noël Carroll
USA
Justin Chang
USA
Anupama Chopra
India
Sean Cubitt
UK/Australia
Manishita Dass
UK/India
Tom Dawson
UK
Michel Demopoulos
Greece
Anne Demy-Geroe
Australia
Christophe Dupin
Belgium
Pierre Eisenreich
France
Angie Errigo
USA/UK
Pierre Eugène
France
Cristina Fernandes
Portugal
Jean-Michel Frodon
France
Mihai Fulger
Romania
Graham Fuller
UK/USA
Alfonso Garcia Calvo
Spain
Charlotte Garson
France
Laure Gaudenzi
France
Adam Gonet
UK
Brandon Harris
USA
Sam Ho
Hong Kong
J Hoberman
USA
Bruce Hodsdon
Australia
Philip Horne
UK
Bill Horrigan
USA
Caryn James
USA
Thierry Jobin
Switzerland
Sheila Johnston
UK
Laurent Jullier
France
Christian Keathley
USA
Vassilis Kroustallis
Estonia
Annette Kuhn
UK
Nathan Lee
USA
Isaac León-Frías
Peru
Joachim Lepastier
France
João Lopes
Portugal
Roberto Manassero
Italy
Ivone Margulies
USA
Paolo Mereghetti
Italy
Eddie Muller
USA
Markus Nechleba
Germany
Michael Nordine
US
Jan Olsson
Sweden
David Parkinson
UK
Olivier Père
France
Julio Pérez Perucha
Spain
Muszatics Péter
Hungary
Raymond Phathanavirangoon
Hong Kong/Thailand
Andrei Plakhov
Russia
Charles Ramírez Berg
USA
Clément Rauger
France
Carrie Rickey
USA
Leo Robson
UK
Mohammed Rouda
UK
Philippe Rouyer
France
Tom Ryan
Australia
Sheila Schvarzman
Brazil
Ariel Schweitzer
France/Israel
Malena Solarz
Argentina
Janet Staiger
USA
Brad Stevens
UK
Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
USA
Amy Taubin
USA
David Thompson
UK
Yann Tobin aka N.T.BINH
France
José Luis Torrelavega
Spain
Daniela Turco
Italy
Andrea Virginás
Hungary/Romania
Michael Wedel
Germany
Tien-Hsiang Wen
Taiwan
Norm Wilner
Canada
Michael Witt
UK
Iván Zgaib
Argentina
Nicolás Zukerfeld
Argentina

Directors

Carlos Abascal Peiró
Spain
Olivier Assayas
France
Edgardo Cozarinsky
Argentina
Julie Delpy
France
Yinan Diao
China
Edwin Edwin
Indonesia
Joanna Hogg
UK
Mariano Llinás
Argentina
Steve McQueen
UK
Yvonne Rainer
USA
Volker Schlöndorff
Germany
Paul Schrader
US
Rudolf Thome
Germany
Maryam Touzani
Morocco
Claudia Weill
USA

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