Renoir’s masterpiece The Rules of the Game, which is always cited on lists of the greatest movies of all times, is nevertheless fortunate to have survived in reasonable enough shape to support this new digital transfer. A biting critique of French society, Renoir’s film (in which he also co-stars) is cloaked in the froth of a comedy of manners. Prior to its release in 1939, the distributor chopped the running time. Then Renoir shortened it further following violent audience reactions. The French Vichy government banned the film as demoralizing, then the Nazis lent force to that edict. Although the original print was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid, the film was reassembled from various prints in the late 1950s. This new digital print makes Renoir’s revolutionary use of deep focus even more evident and breathtaking. Renoir’s story of various classes of French society mingling during a retreat to a hunting chateau (beware the brutal but pertinent hunting sequence, which can seem interminable) never fails to revel new dimensions with each repeated viewing.
This article appears in June 25 • 2004.
