Its art lies in what Renoir chooses to exclude rather than what he includes.
Comment
02/20/04
The Rules of the Game (1939)
97
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:36
Rotten:1
Average Rating:9.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME is a devastating satire of the pre-WWII French aristocracy. Starring Marcel Dalio as wealthy... [More]
Starring: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Jean Renoir, Mila Parely
Director: Jean Renoir
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Reviews for The Rules of the Game
Embracing every level of French society, from the aristocratic hosts to a poacher turned servant, the film presents a hilarious yet melancholic picture of a nation riven by petty class distinctions.
06/24/06
A film that I adore and worship with religious fervor, one of the small handful of movies that I have never been able to exhaust.
07/26/09
If you think you know it, see it again for its newly rediscovered depth of field, and even more, for its infinite wellsprings of character and empathy.
10/31/06
Top CriticEven if you think you know it, see it again for its newly rediscovered depth of field, and even more, for its infinite wellsprings of character and empathy.
12/28/06
Top CriticSo simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous, that you can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it.
04/09/04
Top CriticDefined a style of filmmaking as surely as Potemkin did. Renoir's lucid style manifests itself in a seemingly effortless craftsmansip still unequalled today.
01/20/04
What ultimately defines the film, what makes it unforgettable, is its tragic gravity.
12/22/06
Top CriticA scathing attack on the show of feeling by a murderously superficial elite . . . the more you watch it, the more Renoir's masterwork reflects the cold, hard truth%u2014The Rules of the Game still apply.
03/25/07
[The film] is a comedy, a tragedy, a portrait of class manners, a love story of touching caprice (who will Nora Grégor's Christine fall for? Whoever woos her at the right moment), and far and away the cinema's greatest midsummer night's dream.
11/08/06
Top CriticSnarky, biting, hilarious: Equal parts Calvin Ball and Catch-22.
04/04/04
The film was withdrawn, recut, and eventually banned by the occupying forces for its "demoralizing" effects. It was not shown again in its complete form until 1965, when it became clear that here, perhaps, was the greatest film ever made.
11/08/06
Top CriticYes, there is the director's perfect and unobtrusive technique...and, yes, there's his extraordinarily good-natured, generous attitude toward his characters. But the whole is much greater than the sum of these elements.
12/28/06
Welcome to The Rules of the Game, Jean Renoir's delightful, frothy, bittersweet masterpiece about romance, class and manners.
03/16/07
One of the films most despised (and butchered) when released, only to become one of the most valued ones, and Renoir's undisputed masterpiece, a decade later
06/29/05
A disaster when initially released, the movie's reputation has only grown since.
02/16/07
Top CriticThe digitally restored print showing in theaters is worth seeing. If it doesn't come to your town, then look for it to show up on IFC in its tribute to Janus Films or buy or rent the Criterion Collection DVD. However you see this masterpiece, you absol
01/11/07
This is like finding out Citizen Kane sucks.
10/11/04
Like the very greatest artists in all media, Renoir was able to transcend his own perspective, his own prejudices, and glimpse something of the terror and wonder of human life, the pain of misapplied or rejected love, for rich as for poor.
11/02/06
Top CriticA gorgeous, gracefully astute critique of pre-WWII French aristocracy.
05/04/05
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