Film Review: THE RULES OF THE GAME (La Règle du jeu -1939) by Jean Renoir

“Love as it exists in society is merely the mingling of two whims and the contact of two skins.” This quote from Jean Renoir’s masterpiece The Rules of the Game successfully sums up what the film wants to say and the stand that it takes against the French upper-class society of the late 1930s.
This film, originally made in French, in 1939, is a classic for various reasons. It represents how the director, Jean Renoir saw the bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II. Looked at from a comic/ humorous point of view, it goes on to highlight the hypocrisy of the upper-class mannerisms and morality of a French society, blinded by its own sheen.
The story centers around three romantic triangles. The aforementioned quote also sums up the characters’ view towards love and relationships in general. However, the most impressive sequence in the film was the hunt at the county estate. The aristocrats, who were supposed to shoot pheasants, ended up shooting a lot of rabbits as well. The cinematography in the sequence was just brilliant. Renoir made sure that the viewer got to see some of the rabbits actually dying after being shot. After the hunt, the owner of the estate throws a party, which begins fantastically, but ends in the tragic loss of life of one of the central characters.
What I thought to be different or novel about this particular film was that it wasn’t a fight between the good and the bad. In fact, all eight major characters had their flaws. The plot development was unpredictable, so much so, that at times I found it to be really confusing, yet admirable at the same time. The characters also had an air of unpredictability about them.
The technical aspect of the film was truly admirable for its age and era. The shot were at times prolonged, which had the viewer glued to the screen. What I also found fascinating was Renoir’s selection and use of sets. Not a single scene in the movie showed the lifestyle or the living conditions of anyone except the aristocrats. The set was lavish and posh to a very large extent. I particularly liked the use of mirrors in the movie. In more scenes than one, the character was not shown facing the camera, but his/her reflection in the mirror was captured. The editing in the film was also commendable. It seamlessly bound farce, satire, humor, and tragedy together.
Altogether, the film stands out as one of the timeless classics, not because of what it says (class conflict, I believe, is jaded topic for a film), but how it says it. There was much more to the film than just plot, humor and tragedy.