Jean Renoir's 1939 masterpiece, La Règle du jeu was a groundbreaking cinematic achievement on numerous levels, and a glorious, expertly-written satire that exposes the facade of French high society "etiquette" shortly before being engulfed by World War II. The film's setting, characters, and plot were not only modern, innovative, and quite relevant, but also shockingly controversial at the time of the film's release, mere months before the outbreak of the war. Unfortunately for Renoir, this controversy (as it often does in the film industry) translated into harsh criticism from the political right-wing upon the film's release in Paris on July 7, 1939, and within two months the film was even banned by the government.
As Alan Singerman commented, "It's hardly surprising that the French public of 1939, accustomed to chauvinistic themes in the popular films of the time and anguished by the Nazi threat, was not willing to countenance a satirical portrait of their social elite which was basically negative" (100). After the war, however, the film was restored, and it finally began to collect the praise it deserved, and has since been considered by most to be one of the greatest films of all time. One cannot help but pity Renoir, being so far ahead of his time that he had to wait 33 years for his masterpiece to be fully appreciated, being named the second best film of all time in 1972. In the realm of film, the subject of intermarital sexual affairs is more taboo the farther back in time a film was made.
The riotous controversy that surrounded La Règle du jeu is reminiscent, in my opinion, of the cultural shockwave caused by the 1967 release of The Graduate in the United States, which was also considered appalling after its release, and contained mildly similar subjects concerning society, sex, and love. The case of La Règle du jeu, of course, was much more intense for the time period. The sexual promiscuity exhibited in La Règle du jeu would scarcely offend the average moviegoer from the 21st century, but in 1939, to imply this sort of behavior of the French elite was considered to be overtly unpatriotic. This sort of behavior is practically glorified on American television today, on shows like Desperate Housewives.
Although Renoir infused La Règle du jeu with a myriad of thematic oppositions (high society v. low society, hunter v. prey, antiquity v. modernity), the universality of mankind is arguably the most important message to be drawn from the Renoir's film. The similar love triangles occurring both upstairs and downstairs in the castle are a reflection of this truth. No matter how much the elite strive to elevate themselves above and beyond typical society, they are inexorably just as human as the dead-broke rabbit poachers of the world.
Some of the characters value their reputations above everything else, while others value love above all, but everyone is subject to their innate human weaknesses; Robert has been having an affair with Geneviève, Christine is willing to run away with anyone who she believes loves her more than her husband, Andrè is naive and foolish, Marceau is devious, and Schumacher is jealous and rash. When Andrè is killed, however, and all the chips are down, everyone hides behind the “rules of the game” that were so easily broken so shortly before. I thought this film, as I mentioned above, was far ahead of its time. Having studied both Modernist and Postmodernist literature, it is clear that Jean Renoir was a visionary, whose dramatic structure and overall state of mind was decades ahead of the curve.
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