La Règle du Jeu aka The Rules of The Game by Jean Renoir 

La Règle du Jeu aka The Rules of The Game by Jean Renoir

Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and  http://realini.blogspot.ro/

This is a masterpiece that some have listed at number one-

-          Best film ever made

-          Others have placed it just under Citizen Kane

It is surely a chef d’oeuvre.

Roger Ebert said that:

-          One cannot simply watch this, one needs to absorb it

-          It is so simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous…

Indeed, there are a series of love affairs that mostly go wrong, but otherwise The Rules of the Games seem to involve everyone cheats on everyone else.

And yet it is so much more complicated than multiple, crossing love interests and the jealousy, envy, hate that can be involved therein.

Andre Jurieu opens the narrative with his crossing of the Atlantic, the record established and the consequent media frenzy to cover the story.

But he is very upset amidst his victory, because Christine de la Cheyniest, the woman he loves and for whom he has embarked on the perilous journey is not present there to welcome him and he feels betrayed.

Christine is an Austrian married to Le Marquis Robert de la Cheyniest, who had been involved in an affair with Geneviève de Marras, for three years before marrying his spouse.

To complicate matters in this complicated threesome that becomes a foursome and then more, Octave is a father figure who comes often to see Christine, he tries to protect her, but this affection becomes more complex.

These characters and guests travel to the chateau belonging to the rich marquis and Le Jeu is at its peak.

In this carnival of emotions, betrayal, love and deception we have servants that are involved: Lisette, her husband Schumacher and the would be lover Marceau.

Animosities become friendships, platonic relationships get close to being intimate and there is a Dance To The Music of Time, to refer to another masterpiece.

The Rules of the Game seem to refer also to social standards, etiquette and politeness, even if they appear ridiculous when opposed to real, all conquering love, such as in the instance when there is the question of running away:

-          C’est pas comme il faut- ok, but without going as far as saying the silly “all is fair in love and war”, it still appears that if they love each other, they should just run for it, especially since the other parties involved have been having their own affairs

I also thought about the strange perspective that the French have on their personalities and their shenanigans, like in the cases of Dominique Strauss Kahn, Mitterrand and many others, known to have had in cases outrageous behavior and excesses and yet hide them under a thick cover of fog, without a mention in the press.

The complexity of the intimacy, then the distance placed between personages made me also remember the classic:

-          Games People Play by Eric Berne

There is a hunt wherein many rabbits, pheasants and other game are killed, but there is also a chase for rivals and human trophies.

The rivals physically fight each other, in some instances try and shoot one another, but then they also become close, in a strange contradiction of the initial conflict.

 Just when we expect one hero to become blissfully happy, he ends up on the ground and the reverse is true for others that we thought will reach a nadir and arrive at the finish line walking on their feet and even smiling.

Jean Renoir was the son of the great Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir, whose other children became artists…indeed, one of the others was an actor playing Octave in this magnificent film.

Robert Altman said about La Règle du Jeu:

-          "I learned the rules of the game from 'The Rules of the Game,'„ and Roger Ebert said that this film “was not a million miles off from this plot with his "Gosford Park" -- right down to the murder.”