Jean Renoir’s "The Rules of the Game" 4K UHD - Nora Gregor @Criterion (Patreon)

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Jean Renoir’s "The Rules of the Game" 4K UHD - Nora Gregor @Criterion 

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OUR REVIEW:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film11/4K_UHD_review_05/the_rules_of_the_game_4K_UHD.htm

Virtually everyone agrees that this is Jean Renoir’s supreme masterpiece, made and released the same year as Only Angels Have Wings and even more of a virtuoso ensemble work. Yet this was so adroit in catching the troubled zeitgeist of France at the time that it was loathed by audiences at the time of its release, making it the biggest flop of Renoir’s career. Only many years later, after it was painstakingly restored and reconstructed, was its greatness seen and acknowledged. Mostly set in a country chateau over a single weekend, where the crisscrossing romantic intrigues of both guests and servants play out in intricate counterpoint, culminating in a costume party, Renoir joins the proceedings as a major actor and character as well as writer-director, attempting to serve as go-between between two of his most intimate friends, the wife (Nora Grégor) of the Jewish marquis (Marcel Dalio) who’s hosting the weekend and the lovesick but rejected famous pilot (Roland Toutain) who wants to run away with her. As a view of French society in 1939, this tragicomic farce is both scathingly satirical and warmly compassionate, though it was plainly only the scathing satire that most members of the contemporary audience responded to.

***

Criterion's 4K UHD release of Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game is essential for digital librarian cinephiles. The film was banned by the war era France for "having an undesirable influence over the young". Its extensive use of deep-focus and long shots, stressing depth of vision, effective mise en scène with a kinetic camera was fairly bold and pioneering for 1939. Many directors have praised The Rules of the Game citing it as an inspiration for their own work. It has been listed in Sight & Sound's top ten films poll for every decade from 1952 (its inception) to the 2012 list (in 2022 it fell to #13.) Renoir’s satire and critique of the upper-middle class wealth, power and privilege showcases irony and subtle wit at every turn. Criterion's 4K UHD package is the ultimate - one of the most important of the year. Our highest recommendation!