This is a French sex farce from 1939 that has an amazingly positive reputation today. In its day, I'm sure it probably did well in the theaters, but in this day and age it just seemed really old and tired to me. This is not because I hate old films or French films--I love both if done well. However, I just found myself pretty bored by the picture and felt that watching practically EVERYONE (from the rich jet-setters to the servants) bouncing from partner to partner was not my cup of tea. It actually was rather funny that although practically everyone was cheating on their spouses in the film, they never really seemed to get around to having sex. Mostly, they just seemed to go through the motions of wooing and sneaking about instead of any real infidelity.

Although a few Hollywood films have similar story elements, this movie stands in sharp contrast to the average American film. The French in the 1930s would probably have seen most Americans in films of the day as uptight and too conventional, while Americans would have been amazed at how fixated the French were on infidelity. Even way back then, the differences in the two cultures seem extreme when we view them in film.

By the way, Octave is actually played by the director, Jean Renoir.

This is on every great films list. I finally got to see it. There is great cinematography, cameras peering down hallways, people in constant motion as in an anthill. All the sordid relationships are brought to the screen. What I needed to know was whether this is really parody. The people are awful. They have no respect for their marriages and their trysts are happening all over the place. Servants are groping servants. Rich are groping rich. The gamekeeper, who looks a little like John Cleese is allowed to run through the house during a party, firing shots randomly, hoping to hit the man who is pursuing his wife. Is the ennui the whole point. Are they the rabbits that are hunted with their sexual appetite? I just see boredom and lack of commitment and its hard to separate this primitive morality from their silly, pointless lives. It also seems they have their own laws which they can make or break at will. Perhaps if I become more wise to what Renoir was trying to do, I will enjoy this more the next time I see it.

The French hero aviator André Jurieux (Roland Toutain) is a national hero, after crossing the ocean in an airplane. He commits an indiscreet comment to the press about the absence of the bourgeois Christine de la Cheyniest (Nora Grégor) at his reception. His great friend Octave (Jean Renoir) arranges an invitation for André to spend a couple of days in the chateau of Christine and her husband Robert de la Cheyniest (Marcel Dalio),where they would be receiving some close friends for hunting rabbits and pheasant cocks. Along these days, we see a great fight of classes between the hypocrites bourgeois and the servant classes. This dramatic comedy is considered one of the best movies of the history of the cinema. It was forbidden by the French government first and then by the Germans, being the original copies totally destroyed along the war. However, in 1956 a copy was found and restored with the approval of Jean Renoir himself. In Brazil, the magnificent DVD released by the Brazilian distributor Versátil is wonderful, having a great quality of image and sound. The shadows in the black and white photography are outstanding and the story with many characters, shows a society full of liars, unfaithful husbands and wives, low character persons independently of their social classes, in a country near to the war and invasion by foreigner forces. In 2001, Robert Altman used the same idea and many components of 'La Règle du Jeu' in his awarded 'Gosford Park'. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'A Regra do Jogo' ('The Rules of the Game')