Jean Renoir’s 1939 “La Règle du Jeu” is widely hailed as one of the ten best movies ever made, credited with launching French New Wave cinema, cited as seminal by directors from Truffaut to Bogdanovich, and so forth. I found a cheap Criterion edition a couple weeks ago.
It’s certainly interesting. The director (son of painter Auguste Renoir) uses lots of really deep shots, with action happening not only up near the camera but also in the background and behind the background and behind that. Some of the scenes you can barely see the actors.
And the acting is certainly, uh, casual. Unlike many productions from pre-war cinema, the dialog and stage direction seem naturalistic, unrehearsed, lifelike.
But the story is pretty unremarkable. A bunch of rich society types get together for a weekend at a country estate and talk about their mistresses and lovers. They go hunting (lots of rabbits and pheasants get killed for real onscreen). People have fights and make up, people forgive each other. Ho-hum.
Still, now I can say I’ve seen it.
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