The Rules of the Game
Movie: 1939, b/w, 106 min. (French)
Director: Jean Renoir
Tiny synopsis: Renoir's look at bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II. An assorted cast of characters - the rich and their poor servants - meet up at a French chateau.
What kind of filming techniques does Renoir use?
Throughout the entire film Jean Renoir uses a long take technique accompanied by a deep focus which makes for a long uninterrupted take. This action is underlined by a unique rhythm that adds to the film without being to distracting. Renoir’s choice to avoid the difficult and intricate way of editing was demonstrated best in the hunting sequence in which it is sharply cut. He believed and it shows in this film that long takes create a more bona fide real life beat which decrease the amount of manipulation that occurs in over-editing.
Why did the film’s release cause such an uproar in France and Paris specifically?
The film concentrates on a group of well off French people. Upon it’s premiere in Paris the film was not greeted well. There was much disapproval of how the wealthy French were depicted in the film. Renoir, surprised by the actions France took, the people and the government did as well was truly hurt. The film only became one of the greatest Renoir ever made in the late 50’s as a result of his being able to grasp hold of the power to edit it back to its natural state. Due to not being warmly received on its original release in the late 30’s, audiences in Paris on its opening night were explicitly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of contempt. Distributors cut the film from 113 minutes to 80minutes. If you can’t do the math that’s 33 minutes that was chopped from an artists work without his consent. It was also banned as morally hazardous during the German occupation and the only negative was destroyed during WWII. The film was condemned because of its satirical material of the upper class.
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