The Rules of the Game (1939) Play Nice on Blu-Ray
The Criterion Collection released The Rules of the Game to Blu-ray on November 15, 2011. Jean Renoir directed the film starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, and Paulette Dubost.
‘The Rules of the Game’ Criterion Synopsis
Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir, is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners in which a weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances. The film has had a tumultuous history: it was subjected to cuts after the violent response of the premiere audience in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II; it wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here.
Read the full summary, and listen to our film review.
Special Features
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Introduction to the film by director Jean Renoir
- Audio commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
- Comparison of the film’s two endings
- Selected-scene analysis by Renoir historian Chris Faulkner
- Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La Règle et l’exception (1966), a French television program by filmmaker Jacques Rivette
- Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by film critic David Thompson
- Video essay about the film’s production, release, and 1959 reconstruction
- Interview with film critic Olivier Curchod
- Interview from a 1965 episode of the French television series Les écrans de la ville in which Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand discuss their reconstruction and rerelease of the film
- Interviews with set designer Max Douy, Renoir’s son, Alain; and actress Mila Parély
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Sesonske; writings by Jean Renoir, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bertrand Tavernier, and François Truffaut; and tributes to the film by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman, and others
New cover by Edward Sorel
Rate the Film!
Our Rating
Our Rating
The Gaumont Film Company released The Rules of the Game on July 7, 1939. Jean Renoir directed the film starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, and Paulette Dubost.