Movie Review – The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game (1939)
Written by Jean Renoir and Carl Koch
Directed by Jean Renoir

Lately, I have spent much time wondering what it felt like for the average person in the West during the lead-up to World War II. Did people sense something in the air that the world was about to change? Was there a palpable unease as you started to see where allegiances lay among the people around you? BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled people were already keenly aware of how nasty the dominant class could be. But what about the average white person? The ones who get a few more crumbs when brushed off the table by the wealthy, could they feel the fangs of something dark & horrible sinking into this world? Or was it business as usual?

André Jurieux is a renowned aviator who has just crossed the Atlantic to land in Paris, a feat that was still remarkable in the late 1930s. Despite the fanfare around him, Andre is despondent because his lover, Christine, is not there to greet him. When a microphone is put in front of his face by members of the press, Andre uses the opportunity to denounce Christine. The problem is that Christine has been married to the nobleman Robert, Marquis de la Chesnaye, for three years. Listening to the broadcast with Christine is her maid, Lisette, who is married to the estate’s gamekeeper but feels more devoted to her lady. Robert isn’t too worried about Christine’s affairs; he even shares a laugh with her before slipping away to call his mistress, Geneviève. In the middle of the whole mess is Octave (Jean Renoir), an old friend of Andre and Christine, trying to navigate these treacherous social waters diplomatically. And on the periphery is Marceau, a poacher who gets caught only to be given a job on the estate, leading to more trouble. 

Jean Renoir was very aware and anxious about a war breaking out in Europe. In the late 1930s, the filmmaker was at the height of his success but was increasingly nervous as tensions boiled over. He found inspiration for his work in classical French comedies, particularly Les Caprices de Marianne, which had four archetypal characters: the virtuous wife, the jealous husband, the despairing lover, and the interceding friend. Rather than be the “happy dream” Renoir had set out to write a distraction, the script became something else entirely. The Rules of the Game is a pointed critique of the moral indifference of the European upper class and those who served them, especially in the context of the suffering everyone knew would come with a war. In his search to tell a “frivolous story,” Renoir, in fact, said something straightforward about those responsible.

Renoir would later refer to The Rules of the Game as a sort of “reconstructed documentary,” wherein he observed the people around him with a microscope, recorded the patterns and behaviors he witnessed, and then gave his observations a form and structure. Like Grand Illusion, The Rules saw itself banned by the French establishment and was even banned a second time after World War II ended. The filmmaker was saying that the coming tide of fascism in Europe was not being fought back against by those who had the power to do so. Instead, they chose to languish away on their estates, caught up in morally dubious proclivities in which they couldn’t even show loyalty to each other. And in fact, they were the root cause of the fascism. 

There’s a chilling scene you won’t forget if you’ve seen the film. Christine, Robert, and their guests attend a rabbit & pheasant hunt on the grounds. The gamekeeper and his lackeys drive the animals out of their hiding spots, while the wealthy don’t even have to take a step. They stand with hunting rifles and shotguns, engaging in an ultimately pointless slaughter for their entertainment. We can see the beaters (the ones driving the animals out) as those in the working class who are complicit in rounding up the “undesirables.” As a result, those in power don’t have to do much other than pull the killing lever. And what is even worse, these people find joy in killing; it’s a fun game for them.

It is not a random decision for Renoir to play the critical role of Octave, the film’s ostensible “clown.” By making this choice, he includes himself in the condemnation. If the director had simply stood behind the camera, he would have been wordlessly saying he was separate from what was being shown on screen. Instead, he stepped in front of it, not in a small role but one that delivered one of the film’s most powerful lines: “You see, in this world, there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.” 

People find all sorts of ways to morally justify anything that keeps them in a state of comfort. The truth-tellers among humanity are either forcibly placed into discomfort or choose to go there. There is no default setting where I, as a Westerner, as an American, as a cis white man, have to tell the truth. I was born into a system where these social aspects of my identity allow me to not say anything, and it is “okay” in the eyes of my peers. True bravery comes from those who live under the threat of being ground into the dirt when they speak up. Renoir knew this, which is why he put himself in the thing.

It’s hard to define who the villains are in this film. The people are pretty rotten but so passive & caught up in inane gossip. Renoir tells us the Rules in the title are the villain. Andre believes that he can change things by accomplishing something unique (Transatlantic flight); he’s proven himself a hero. Christine thinks that by following her heart and pursuing her true love, she can make at least her little corner of the world better. They can’t. The “joy” these characters find in life is so meaningless, predicated on the subjugation of others, destruction for pleasure, and conspicuous consumption. As Renoir said, “The world is made up of cliques,” and these social groups can’t let everyone in. Then they aren’t “special” anymore.

Or this exchange:

“I want to disappear down a hole.”

“Why’s that?”

“So I no longer have to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong.”

If you live in the imperial core of the West, then you need to realize you will never see revolution in your spaces any time soon. We are so entangled in the rules of our game, almost indistinguishable from what happens in this movie, that the idea of permanently overthrowing the institutions that rule over our lives is honestly laughable. We need to collectively understand what we are in the game that has been colonialism. 

Here’s how I know revolution is not possible in the States any time soon. So many couldn’t even be bothered to wear a mask to help slow the spread of what has become one of the deadliest viruses of our time. If you cannot stomach the discomfort that seemingly the whole of Southeast Asia has been able to do for decades, then you’re not going to be able to contemplate a world where you do not have your car to drive, your snacks to eat, your modern comforts to keep you at ease. To revolt means that those who hold power would systematically take these things away to “correct our behavior.” The majority of us would fold in less than a day. You are a morally reprehensible person if you aren’t still taking COVID-19 seriously. If that stings, let it sting. As the saying goes, the truth hurts.

I also think it’s no coincidence that when the data began to come out that the populations most affected by COVID-19 in the States were Indigenous, Black, and Asian, suddenly, there was an uprising of the white lumpenproletariat against precautions and mitigation. It is in those communities that are directly affected by our passive & active cruelties that there is any chance of true liberation being seeded. The Rules are that the wealthy keep getting wealthy, the workers labor until they drop dead, and amongst that working class, they squabble over what amounts to nothing for the entertainment of the powerful. 

May the world find true liberation, and may the West spend a few centuries in irrelevance and quiet contemplation about its history and how it can serve all of humanity.