Rules of the Game (#216)

Considered one of the greatest films ever made, THE RULES OF THE GAME (LA RHGLE DU JEU), by Jean Renoir (GRAND ILLUSION), is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners, in which a weekend at a marquis countryside chateau lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haute bourgeois acquaintances. The film was a victim of tumultuous history it was subjected to cuts after premiere audiences rejected it 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.