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The Rules of the Game

Play trailer Poster for The Rules of the Game 1939 1h 50m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
97% Tomatometer 62 Reviews 89% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
André is having an affair with Christine, whose husband Robert is himself hiding a mistress. Christine's married maid is romantically entangled with the local poacher. At a hunting party, the passions of servants and aristocrats dangerously collide.
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The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game

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Critics Consensus

Its genius escaped many viewers at the time, but in retrospect, The Rules of the Game stands as one of Jean Renoir's -- and cinema's -- finest works.

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Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody The New Yorker Jul 31
Like the opera [The Marriage of Figaro], the film blends these disparate moods and tones at a whirlwind tempo: slapstick comedy and poignant melodrama, graceful lyricism and bumptious braggadocio, witty satire and bitter tragedy. Go to Full Review
Pauline Kael The New Yorker 02/05/2024
Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game is a love roundelay that accelerates and intensifies until it becomes a rare mingling of lyric poetry and macabre farce. Go to Full Review
David Denby The New Yorker 06/03/2014
The word "Mozartean"... gets thrown around a little too eagerly by critics, but one movie, as almost everyone agrees, deserves this supreme benediction -- Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. Go to Full Review
Ian Kane Epoch Times 09/27/2024
4.5/5
The film’s commentary on class and indifference resonates today and, hopefully, can inspire viewers to strive for greater understanding and empathy. Go to Full Review
Diana Tuova Spotlight on Film 08/02/2024
5/5
This film is, arguably, Jean Renoir’s greatest achievement. Go to Full Review
Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) 03/06/2024
Renoir's script, a perfect complex mechanism that runs with the confidence of a Rolls-Royce engine, is one of the few sophisticated films about love that achieve irony without a stain of malignity. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Jacob B Sep 8 The film that introduced me to two great loves of mine: French cinema and Robert Altman. Altman credited this with teaching him “the rules”. See more Tom F May 16 An awkward comedy of manners from an awkward period to be making movies in France. See more Gus L 11/17/2024 Renoir found it remarkably easy to come up with subplots and one scene characters, so he focused on that instead of actually creating a plot or a protagonist. There is no discernible character development or movement from the beginning to the end. It was, as Larry David may say, "a show about nothing." While that may work well for a sitcom or a play, a film without a plot or protagonist is a disappointing film indeed. Three stars for the witty dialogue and well-executed slapstick. I can justify no more than that. See more bob c 02/23/2024 too convoluted for me See more George B 11/10/2023 I'm going to be in the minority here. I found Rules of the Game to be mildly amusing in places, but overall boring. And lacking in consistent tone. It's been hailed as a masterpiece. I thought it a mediocrepiece. See more acsdoug D @acsdoug 09/24/2023 I understand this film's place in cinematic history. In 1939 it must have been pretty groundbreaking, what with its advanced cinematic techniques and a plot where everybody is screwing everybody else. Eighty-four years later, however, it didn't have much impact on me. If this is how the French were then it's no wonder the Germans had so little trouble rolling through France a year later. See more Read all reviews
The Rules of the Game

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Movie Info

Synopsis André is having an affair with Christine, whose husband Robert is himself hiding a mistress. Christine's married maid is romantically entangled with the local poacher. At a hunting party, the passions of servants and aristocrats dangerously collide.
Director
Jean Renoir
Producer
Claude Renoir
Screenwriter
Carl Koch, Jean Renoir
Distributor
Criterion Collection, Cine Classics
Production Co
Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
French (France)
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 8, 1939, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 21, 2009
Runtime
1h 50m
Aspect Ratio
35mm, Flat (1.37:1)
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