The Rules of the Game (1939) La règle du jeu (original title)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Jean Renoir (scenario & dialogue)
Carl Koch (collaborator)

Release Date:

8 April 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Renoir's look at bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II. An assorted cast of characters - the rich and their poor servants - meet up at a French chateau.

Plot Keywords:

Party | Love | Servant | Aviator | Secret

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Nora Gregor	...	Christine de la Cheyniest (as Nora Grégor)
Paulette Dubost	...	Lisette, sa camériste
Mila Parély	...	Geneviève de Marras
Odette Talazac	...	Madame Charlotte de la Plante
Claire Gérard	...	Madame de la Bruyère
Anne Mayen	...	Jackie, nièce de Christine
Lise Elina	...	Radio-Reporter (as Lise Élina)
Marcel Dalio	...	Marquis Robert de la Cheyniest (as Dalio)
Julien Carette	...	Marceau, le braconnier (as Carette)
Roland Toutain	...	André Jurieux
Gaston Modot	...	Edouard Schumacher, le garde-chasse
Jean Renoir	...	Octave
Pierre Magnier	...	Le général
Eddy Debray	...	Corneille, le majordome
Pierre Nay	...	Monsieur de St. Aubin
Richard Francoeur	...	Monsieur La Bruyère (as Francoeur)
Léon Larive	...	Le cuisinier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nicolas Amato	...	L'invité sud-américain (uncredited)
Henri Cartier-Bresson	...	Le domestique anglais (uncredited)
Celestin	...	Le garçon de cuisine (uncredited)
Tony Corteggiani	...	Berthelin (uncredited)
Roger Forster	...	L'invité efféminé (uncredited)
Camille François	...	Le speaker (uncredited)
Jenny Hélia	...	La servante (uncredited)
André Zwoboda	...	L'ingénieur (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Renoir

Writing credits
Jean Renoir		(scenario & dialogue)
Carl Koch		(collaborator) (as Koch)

Produced by
Jean Renoir	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Jean-Paul Alphen		(as Alphen)
Jean Bachelet		(as Bachelet)
Jacques Lemare
Alain Renoir

Film Editing by
Marthe Huguet		(as Mme Huguet)
Marguerite Renoir		(as Marguerite)

Production Design by
Max Douy		(as Douy)
Eugène Lourié		(as Lourié)

Costume Design by
Coco Chanel		(as La Maison Chanel)

Makeup Department
Ralph	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Camille François	....	production supervisor
Raymond Pillon	....	unit manager (as Pillon)
Claude Renoir	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Henri Cartier-Bresson	....	assistant director (as Henri Cartier)
André Zwoboda	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Joseph de Bretagne	....	sound engineer (as De Bretagne)

Camera and Electrical Department
Sam Levin	....	still photographer

Music Department
Roger Desormière	....	conductor: Mozart and Monsigny (as Roger Desormières)
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny	....	music by (as Monsigny)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	....	music by (as Mozart)

Other crew
Dido Freire	....	script girl (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Distributors

• Distribution Parisienne de Films (DPF) (1939) (France) (theatrical) (as La Distribution Parisienne de Films)
• Les Grands Films Classiques (GFC) (1961) (France) (theatrical) (restored)
• Éditions Montparnasse (1998) (France) (VHS)
• Éditions Montparnasse (2003) (France) (DVD) (remastered)
• Éditions Montparnasse (2005) (France) (DVD) (HD new master)
• Films Classiques, Les (2005) (France) (DVD) (division: Edition Montparnasse)
• ABC-Kinot (1977) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Aito Mäkinen (1963) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Cine Classics (1950) (USA) (theatrical) (English subtitles)
• Janus Films (2003) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kino International (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Better Television Distribution (2006) (USA) (TV)
• Carousel Films (2010) (Greece) (DVD)
• Contemporary Films (1980) (UK) (all media)
• Criterion Collection, The (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Flashstar Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Future Film (2012) (Finland) (DVD)
• Homescreen (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Large Door Video (????) (Australia) (VHS)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1971) (1983) (Finland) (TV)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1972) (USA) (TV)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1985) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Chanel  dress
• G.M. Film  prints
• Paris Studios Cinéma  sound post-production
• Studio Pathé  sound post-production
• Western Electric  sound equipment

Also Known As:

"La règle du jeu" - France (original title)

Runtime:

110 min | USA:106 min (DVD version)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric)

Certification:

Australia:G | South Korea:12 (2004) | Netherlands:9 (2009) (DVD) | France:U (Visa #266) | Finland:S (1953) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Aubigny-sur-Nère, Cher, France

Company:

Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Trivia:

Director Jean Renoir recut the film numerous times, due to poor initial reception and damage to the negatives during World War II.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: When the party first arrives at the château, a boom shadow falls on the back of the head of the old white haired guy standing there.

Quotes:

Robert de la Cheyniest:[to Schumacher] I have no choice but to dismiss you. It breaks my heart, but I can't expose my guests to your firearms. It may be wrong of them, but they value their lives.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinéastes de notre temps: Jean Renoir le patron, troisième épisode: La règle et l'exception" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Danse macabre, Op.40

Humblingly wonderful

How can words do justice to this dream of a film? It is one of a dozen or so movies in all film history where just everything seems to have gone right. The casting is perfect, it is technically so seamless to make discussion of that side of the film crass, and the script is one of the great narratives in any medium of its century. The characterisation is absolutely matchless. I cannot think of a film with characters as rich as Lisette, the maid, la Chesnaye, the unfaithful aristocrat, Marceau the poacher, and, above all, Renoir's bumbling Octave who sets the tragic events in motion. Great dramatic art, of which this is arguably the cinema's finest example, is usually characterised by irony. La Règle du Jeu has it in spades. In the sensational final 25 minutes, when enemies become friends, and friends enemies, the cinema seems to take off in flight raising this great art to undreamed of heights. It is just so perfect, it makes you want to weep.