The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, Pierre Magnier and Renoir.
Theatrical release poster
Nora Gregor in 1932. Renoir re-wrote the character Christine for the Austrian actress and reportedly fell in love with her during pre-production.
Nora Gregor, Jean Renoir, Pierre Nay and Pierre Magnier during the rabbit hunt scene. Renoir cut most of his own performance as Octave after the film's negative reception.
Renoir's father, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painted him in Portrait of Jean Renoir as a hunter (1910). Jean considered hunting to be cruel, and did not film The Rules of the Game's hunting scene himself.
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the motion picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the uncle of the cinematographer Claude Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur.
Renoir in 1959
The young Renoir with Gabrielle Renard in a painting by his father Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1895–96)
