Wed 23 Nov, 2011
The Rules of the Game
La Regle du Jeu
Introduced by Steve Wharton from the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies, Renoir’s brilliant social comedy is today hailed as a masterpiece and widely recognised as one of the greatest films ever made. At its premiere, audiences howled, whistled, tore up seats and burned newspapers in protest. Vilified by the critics and re-cut at the insistence of its producers, the film was finally banned by the French government as ‘demoralising’ and unpatriotic.
On the surface, a series of interlinked romantic intrigues taking place at a weekend shooting party in a country chateau, the film is in fact a study in the corruption and decay of French society on the eve of disaster; the outbreak of World War II.
Jean Renoir – France 1939 – 110 mins – Black & White – Subtitles – PG