An Essay I wrote on some observations I found in the film...
http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/an-essay-the-rules-of-the -game-1939/
The Rules of the Game, directed by Jean Renoir in 1939, deeply explores French culture at the time before World War II; the repeated theme of contrasting the rich and the poor is heavily stressed. The rich seem to be selfish, only concerned with their own lives and playing “the game” to advance themselves in their personal affairs. The film editing is used in ways that it was not before this time in cinema. The use of patterns and repetitions draw parallels and juxtapose the characters, as well as the ending with the beginning. The Rules of the Game’s roots are found in realism of the culture of its country’s people.
In the introduction scene of Christine and Lisette, The Rules of the Game comments on the lives of the rich verses the lives of the poor morally and with their pride. Near the end of the scene, Christine moves across the set to sit at her vanity, Lisette follows Christine and stands at her side while she fixes herself. The mise-en-scene shows us Lisette’s reflection in the mirror, but the angle doesn’t show Christine’s face reflecting. This tells us that Lisette can look at herself and her mistakes and keep living, whereas Christine has no reflection. It shows poor people may have more understanding and morals, whereas rich people may not have as much to their souls.
The editing, or lack-there-of in the case of The Rules of the Game, acquires a new way of telling the events of the story. In a scene between Robert and Octave before the party guests travel to the mansion, they almost engage in an argument. The situation becomes heated, but it doesn’t explode into anything volcanic. The director establishes the main shot, but doesn’t cut away. He lets the action happen at certain distance away from the camera’s eye. This approach is used again with Octave in the hallway of the bedrooms at the mansion, allowing the camera to focus on each person Octave interacts with in the hallway. Though not much is played with the lighting, many scenes are lit with candles to set the scene for the time.
The bulk of The Rules of the Game takes place at a mansion in Acts Two and Three. The final scene (before the characters attend the mansion) ends with Robert exiting that frame, leaving only a music player in the shot. The shot lingers on the music player for a few seconds before cutting to black and changing the scene. This mise-en-scene perhaps symbolizes rich people’s thought process and their priorities. They all are all driven by superficial motivation: music, something that’s used for entertainment, is the shot that leads them into the big scene at the mansion. The guests at the mansion continue focusing on entertainment through the entire stay. Other patterns of amusement that follow are the rabbit murdering scene and the play productions.
Film repetition is used in the centerpiece of The Rules of the Game, where the rabbits are exposed to the party guests, who ready to fire their guns. Shooting rabbits becomes entertainment for the rich people and the rabbits symbolize the poor people of society. The rich destroy their lives without a second thought to simply amuse themselves. Rabbits are trying to live their lives to the best of their ability and the people who have more power than them end their lives abruptly.
The rabbits are killed in a violent and aggressive. The editing of the action is quick and abrupt. Quick editing cuts are used to shock us into the deaths of the rabbits. The collision editing method is used to create the mayhem.
A scene at the mansion takes place in the cooking headquarters where the servants eat their dinner that involves the rich vs. poor pattern. That shot is juxtaposed with the rich guests above at the “theater” type party. The poor people below are having a grand time with one another, enjoying each other’s company, letting little things satisfy their happiness, while the rich people above are concerned with their own personal soap operas and the mindless entertainment being performed for them.
A pattern of entertainment that follows is at the party is a play is put on where the ghosts and skeleton take center stage. Not only does this support the pattern of death first seen with the rabbits and later with Andre (it’s almost like rich people find the topic of death amusing), but also it starts another pattern of foreshadowing the war. The mise-en-scene of the skeletons dancing with the ghosts is unsettling to begin with, let alone to have the party guests laugh at the show. The ignorance of the rich has been going on for so long, the inevitable war shouldn’t seem so surprising. If the rich would’ve been paying attention to real life instead of such ridiculous entertainment, maybe some issues could’ve been avoided.
Octave symbolizes an overlapping figure between the servants and the upper-class party guests. Realism is shown here with the rich mindset. Trusted by the rich and poor characters, Octave bounces back and forth between the two social classes. He takes part in one of the plays, playing a bear in a thick, heat-absorbing costume. After his section of the play is completed, Octave asks several people to help him take the costume off, yet everyone ignores him. This shows the rich people are too absorbed in themselves to help any of their friends (Octave isn’t even a servant, but a friend to most). Being the middleman isn’t easy and Octave witnesses and lives the selfish ways of his acquaintances.
Though the rich are contrasted with the poor quite often, there is a wonderful example in the middle of the film that compares the two and pulls out the similarity. When Robert finds Christine with Andre, he engages in a confrontation with him. Whenever Schumacher finds Marceau to be communicating with Lisette, he attacks Marceau. This contrast tells us, yes they have differences in personality make-up, but people are people. It’s in human nature to react hastily to romantic betrayal. This act takes a stand on saying that rich people have it in them to act with the same mindset and values as poor people, but for some reason they chose to act a different way.
There is a tiny contrast in the manner of altercation the two pairs of men engage in. Robert and Andre restrict themselves to fist fighting, where Schumacher and Marceau use guns to argue with each other. It’s interesting the way the script uses parallelism to conclude both arguments; the men fighting end up being able to talk to each other civilly. Schumacher and Marceau even become friends. This may suggest poor people have more of an open mind when dealing with people, whereas rich people learn to be civil and nothing more.
When Schumacher finds out about the semi-affair between Marceau and Lisette, he carries out his anger and rage by using his firearm and chasing Marceau throughout the mansion. This aggression and violence is the biggest foreshadowing of the war; Schumacher looks similar to a Nazi soldier to begin with, but he’s the only character carrying a gun, too. He thinks violence will solve his problem and it eventually does not.
Another piece of repetition is found in the “rich thought process” is the fact that when Andre was shooting his gun all over the mansion, the party guests do not try to stop him, they simply laughed and continue with their conversations. They didn’t care that someone could end up dead, as long as their affairs could be tied up, nothing else mattered. In fact, they found it to be comical. The war was built on this neglect from people with power and the peasant’s rage.
Repetition is used in the opening and final scenes involving Andre. In the opening scene, he should care about the achievement he made for the world, but instead wallows in the misery that he creates for himself with Christine. Selfishness can be found in any of the rich characters, even the one who just accomplished an aviation landmark. In the end, it is Christine he goes out searching for in the garden to run away with. He’s acting out of his own selfish desires, he knows she’s married and doesn’t really love him; again, he doesn’t get what he wants, he’s murdered. Andre is portrayed as a tragic figure in circumstance and the hell he brought on himself. If he would’ve corrected his mistake from the opening and moved on from Christine he may not have died.
The rabbits dying start a pattern that is continued with the death of Andre. The rabbits fall instantly, head first, when they are shot. Schumacher shoots Andre with precision and careful planning. He falls to the ground headfirst and fast enough that it is assumed he was killed instantly. All the rabbits being killed almost foreshadow Andre being shot.
The way Robert finalizes the film is a testament to the “rules” in which the film is named after. Everyone tries to play by his or her own rules, but the most powerful man will win in the end. The game is life itself and everyone has to follow the rules that best suit the rich people. Robert dismissed Andre’s death as accident, which is clearly wasn’t. Robert’s actions are hypocritical and do not solve the situation. The rules do not make sense in real society, but only in the twisted world of the French upper class. When he makes the announcement of the “accident,” the mise-en-scene places him between two pillars that resemble globes, which metaphorically has him standing between the two worlds of the rich and the poor.
The backlighting used after Robert’s announcement creates shadows that feed into the theme of Greek theater created throughout the picture. All the people in the film have no faces anymore (as a result of their believing the “accident” scenario), everyone is in a darker place; so the final shots acting as a curtain call includes only shadows.
Selfishness, ignorance, and the naïve ways of the upper class is highlighted in The Rules of the Game and is most often contrasted with repeating themes of poor people’s actions and morals. The Rules of the Game acts like a Greek theater imitation. The action takes place in short period of time, theatricalities are scattered throughout, and it even acquires as a “stage” in the final scene that ends with a shadowing curtain call. The Rules of Game knows French culture, builds it subtly and realistically throughout the film. The basic statement the film accomplishes saying “PAY ATTENTION!” to the rich people of France in the time before the war.
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