La règle du jeu

A loved-up pilot who has just crossed the Atlantic, his lover - the distinguished Marquise de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor) - and her wealthy husband (Marcel Dalio) with his mistress, his old friend Octave (Jean Renoir), a gamekeeper (Gaston Modot), a poacher and a chambermaid named Lisette (Paulette Dubost) are just a few of the characters in Renoir’s satire. Turning his lens on this illustrious company and the servants during a supposedly carefree weekend at a hunting lodge, Renoir revealed more than dramas of jealousy, violence and hypocrisy. Through his imagery and scenes, including those of a hunt, a masquerade ball as well as other social rituals, he hinted at (French) society teetering on the brink, a country in limbo on the eve of World War II. The reaction of his compatriots to the film showed just how accurately he had captured the mood: it was rejected by audiences and banned by the censors in October 1939 as “demoralizing.” (mg)