--- title: "The Rules of the Game" year: 1939 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-rules-of-the-game" fi1m_score: 91 critics_score: 88 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-16T11:46:20.586209+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T11:46:21.042446+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Rules of the Game (1939) Directed by Jean Renoir · 1h 50m · MPA NR · Drama, Comedy, Romance **Fi1m score: 91** · Critics 88 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* A great deal of social confidence for people who cannot be trusted with a dinner invitation > Jean Renoir’s comedy of romantic intrigue is funny, unsettling and worth the concentration it demands. The busy opening can make its people hard to distinguish; once they settle into view, their small evasions become painfully recognisable. ## Synopsis In pre-war France, Robert de la Cheyniest (Marcel Dalio), Christine de la Cheyniest (Nora Gregor) and Octave (Jean Renoir) move through a social circle busy with romantic rivalries. André Jurieux (Roland Toutain) is caught up in the same competing affections. Below stairs, a maid (Paulette Dubost), a gamekeeper (Gaston Modot) and a poacher (Julien Carette) have interests of their own. Hunting and after-dinner entertainment provide occasions for the company to gather. Private desires complicate the arrangements, with the people upstairs and downstairs trying to negotiate the expectations of their respective places. ## Review *The Rules of the Game* asks us to keep liking people while watching them behave selfishly. Jean Renoir writes and directs with enough affection to make that an uncomfortable request, and the result is funny, troubling and worth the effort. In this pre-war French society, romantic intrigue occupies people who take their own position for granted. The servants have competing desires too. The film lets us enjoy the confusion, then gives us time to consider who can afford to make a fool of themselves. Marcel Dalio gives Robert de la Cheyniest an ease that makes his failings more uncomfortable, because we can understand why people would welcome his company. Nora Gregor’s reserve gives Christine de la Cheyniest a different pace from the people around her. Jean Renoir, playing Octave as well as directing, brings a warmth that stops the gathering becoming merely a collection of bad examples. He makes it possible to like someone here without forgetting how much trouble that person can cause. The cinematography, credited to Jacques Lemare, Jean Bachelet, Jean-Paul Alphen and Alain Renoir, is crucial to that sense of a gathering we are allowed to observe. Deep focus keeps people at different distances in play, while long takes give us time to choose where to look. We are not hurried from one significant face to the next. Paying attention to one person does not require everyone else to cease existing, which makes the social comedy unusually absorbing. It also demands more concentration than a comedy of romantic mishaps might suggest. Eugène Lourié’s production design makes the upstairs-downstairs division readable, so a busy scene need not become an incomprehensible one. The spaces help us understand who belongs where and who is likely to be noticed. Editors Marthe Huguet and Marguerite Renoir give the long takes room without letting every exchange expand indefinitely. Their handling of the crowded intrigue is patient, though it takes a while to recognise whose disappointment matters to whom. The opening is the stretch where keeping track of everyone can become a chore. The rabbit shoot made us feel sick. Hunting sits among the gathering’s pleasures, and that association makes the guests’ composure harder to enjoy. Jean Renoir does not have to turn them into monsters for their behaviour to become disturbing. Joseph Kosma’s music helps sustain the lightness around these changes of tone, rather than making the comedy sound guilty from the start. The after-dinner entertainment brings a related discomfort: we are watching people put considerable effort into amusing one another, and the pleasure is difficult to separate from embarrassment. There are costs to keeping so many people in circulation. Nora Gregor’s reserve sometimes makes Christine de la Cheyniest seem less involved than the intrigue requires, particularly while we are still learning how everyone fits together. A tidier farce would probably give us a clearer favourite and fewer reasons to reconsider our first impressions. Jean Renoir keeps finding room for people to be foolish, hurt and occasionally decent within the same passage. That generosity extends across the upstairs-downstairs divide without pretending that everyone has the same freedom to misbehave. We would recommend it even to someone wary of drawing-room comedy. Choose an evening when the conversations will not have to compete with another screen, and give the introductions your attention. The guests already have enough trouble keeping track of one another. *Fi1m score 91, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are unanimously positive about The Rules of the Game, with praise clustering around Renoir’s direction, the deep-focus photography and the shifts between farce, melancholy and social criticism. Critics repeatedly single out the hunting sequence, while the long takes and layered staging draw admiration for keeping intricate relationships clear. Most critics also stress the film’s humanity: its account of French class divisions and pre-war complacency leaves space to understand the people it exposes. The differences concern emphasis and ease of appreciation rather than substantial objections. Some reviews foreground political anger and the sense of approaching war; others dwell on the comedy’s sympathy for compromised characters. The Telegraph offers the most qualified response, describing an appreciation that develops through repeat viewing as the upstairs-downstairs intrigue becomes clearer. Reservations are otherwise scarce, and the range runs from measured admiration to emphatic praise. ### Reviews we read (11) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (95/100, inferred): The critic hails the film as a magical and elusive masterpiece, simple yet labyrinthine, that blends farce with sharp social satire on the eve of war. He singles out the virtuoso deep-focus cinematography and the hunting sequence for particular praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-rules-of-the-game-1939) - **Slant Magazine** (95/100, inferred): The critic hails the film as representing cinema's possibilities in 106 minutes, praising its tonal control blending low comedy with tragedy and Renoir's gift for revealing the humanity of even contemptible characters. The review singles out the hunting scene and the precise version of the line about everyone having their reasons. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-rules-of-the-game-4k-uhd-blu-ray-review-jean-renoir/) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (95/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a fiercely indignant yet exuberant tragic farce that denounces the frivolity and complicity of French high society before the war. He singles out its musical, operatic blending of tones and its political prescience. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-enduring-power-of-the-rules-of-the-game) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (90/100, inferred): The critic presents the film as an indisputable masterpiece, praising its deep focus technique, satirical bite, and technical marvels that continue to resonate. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/la-regle-du-jeu-review/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the restored 106-minute version of Renoir's masterpiece for balancing its scathing satire of the bourgeoisie with greater depth and humanity for the characters. The review highlights the hunting sequence and the film's famous line about everyone having their reasons. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-rules-of-the-game-dvd-1798199285) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The review highlights the film's satirical depiction of a morally bankrupt pre-war France and praises its innovative style with long takes and deep focus, calling it a bracing, humanist movie. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/jan/29/1) - **The New York Times**, Ben Kenigsberg (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as an enduring classic whose balance of form and content makes it perfectly poised, a comedy of manners that subtly conveys the approach of World War II. He singles out its use of discretion in storytelling and technique. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/movies/jean-renoir-rules-of-the-game.html) - **Time Out**, NF (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Renoir's brilliant social comedy, banned on release as too demoralising, for its audacious shifts between tones and its unjudging observation of romantic intrigues and social rivalries. The rabbit shoot, after-dinner entertainment and Renoir's own performance are highlighted as unforgettable elements in this hilarious yet melancholic portrait of class divisions. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/la-regle-du-jeu) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (85/100, inferred): The critic celebrates the digital restoration that allows viewers to see the 1939 masterpiece in its intended glory after decades of butchered prints. He singles out Renoir’s direction and the film’s status as a prophetic classic of world cinema. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-dec-24-ca-cinefile24-story.html) - **Variety** (80/100, inferred): The piece traces the film’s troubled release history and subsequent restorations, affirming its place among the greatest films ever made. It singles out Renoir’s depiction of French society and the technical achievements of the restored version. [Read](https://variety.com/2004/digital/features/the-rules-of-the-game-3-1200536431/) - **The Telegraph** (70/100, inferred): The critic describes how the film's greatness gradually revealed itself on revisiting, noting its intricate upstairs-downstairs intrigue and the precarious social world it portrays. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/9559660/Ive-fallen-slowly-in-love-with-Renoirs-romcom-La-Regle-du-jeu.html) ## Details - **Director:** Jean Renoir - **Director:** Jean Renoir - **Screenplay:** Jean Renoir - **Novel:** Carl Koch - **Cinematography:** Jean Bachelet, Jean-Paul Alphen, Jacques Lemare, Alain Renoir - **Editor:** Marthe Huguet, Marguerite Renoir - **Music:** Joseph Kosma - **Production design:** Max Douy, Eugène Lourié - **Costume design:** Coco Chanel - **Producer:** Jean Renoir - **Cast:** Jean Renoir as Octave; Marcel Dalio as Robert de la Cheyniest; Nora Gregor as Christine de la Cheyniest; Julien Carette as Marceau, le braconnier; Roland Toutain as André Jurieux; Paulette Dubost as Lisette, sa camériste; Gaston Modot as Edouard Schumacher, le garde-chasse; Mila Parély as Geneviève de Marras - **Runtime:** 1h 50m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 8 April 1950 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy, Romance - **Budget:** $9 million - **Box office:** $273,520 - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRH7oaBQuaY ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: ES. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Gosford Park* (2001), Fi1m 85: Another country-house gathering where the servants understand considerably more than their employers — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/gosford-park.md) - *The Exterminating Angel* (1962): Dinner guests discover how quickly impeccable manners fail when nobody can leave - *The Music Room* (1958): A landowner’s attachment to ceremony becomes a patient, painful study of decline - *Late Spring* (1949), Fi1m 92: Family duty and polite conversations make private desire difficult to admit aloud — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/late-spring.md) - *Smiles of a Summer Night* (1955): Country-house flirtations bring a warmer comedy, with equally sharp attention to vanity --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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