The Rules of the Game

One of the all-time great masterworks of cinema, Jean Renoir’s complex tragicomedy explores social boundaries in France on the eve of WWII. The film interweaves the stories of three love triangles involving aristocrats and their servants, all of whom are at a country house party where a man is killed., Hailed as one of cinema’s greatest achievements, Jean Renoir’s film paints an ironic portrait of the French class system but also illustrates the human complexities that accompany it. When a transatlantic aviator lands in France, he declares that he made the record-setting trip for the love of a woman – who has failed to meet him at the airport. But the woman in question soon makes it clear that the relationship means little to her., Pre-World War II French social issues are explored, as a group of aristocratic friends gather at an estate for a party. When a man turns up murdered, three overlapping love triangles between the nobles and their servants are revealed., Considered by many to be one the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir’s classic indictment of the decadence of European society follows the romantic tangles above and below stairs at a country house weekend shooting party, where amorality is considered to be quite acceptable but an ensuing tragedy shows that morality often asserts itself violently. The film shocked France on its opening and was butchered by the distributors (this is Renoir’s restored version). He was forced to flee France at the invasion and spent the rest of his directorial life in Hollywood.