The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu)
Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir’s masterpiece The Rules of the Game is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners. On a weekend at a marquis’s country château, ugly truths about a group of haute bourgeois acquaintances are exposed.
Subjected to cuts after the violent audience response to the premiere in 1939, the film’s original negative was destroyed during World War II and wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here in a gorgeous new 4K restoration.
The MFAH film department is supported by Tenaris; the Vaughn Foundation; The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea; Nina and Michael Zilkha; Consulate General of Italy in Houston; Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles; Consulate General of Brazil in Houston; Franci Neely; Carrin Patman and Jim Derrick; Ms. Laurence Unger; L’Alliance Française de Houston; and ILEX Foundation.
The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu)
Directed by Jean Renoir
(France, 1939, 106 minutes, in French with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater