Released two months before France entered WWII, Renoir's film - the most expensive French film yet - was hated by critics and audiences, and was banned by the government for being morbid, depressing, and immoral! Despite 30 minutes of cuts, in 1945 it was banned again!
But now it's acclaimed by critics and directors: it's the only film to feature in the Top 10 of all Sight & Sound's once-a-decade Greatest Film of All Time lists since 1952 - currently at #4.
Renoir's tale of a Marquis holding a shooting party to celebrate an aviator's Atlantic flight looks innocent enough but hides a withering critique of French society.
The aviator obsessively loves the Marquise but she has other admirers; the Marquis invites his mistress to the country hoping to lose her to the aviator.
Downstairs, the servants mirror their masters shallowness but ultimately it's those outside the circle who are expendable.
Shelf or charity shop? I was in two minds about keeping LE RÈGLE DE JU but after having watched it again and in writing about it, it has stayed with me so it can reside in my DVD storage box. A film who's influence can be traced down to Robert Altman's GOSFORD PARK, in retrospect you can see how Renoir's selfish characters would have upset those expecting a positive representaton of French society, both before and after WWII. But he exposes a corrupt upper-class chattering towards the darkness of war - most memorably illustrated by the graphic, relentless shooting party sequence where the party disinterestedly shoot anything that runs or flies; the death throes of a shot rabbit filmed in shocked silence. Jean Bachelet's wonderful deep-focus cinematography revels in all areas of the large sets while Renoir's memorable cast includes Paulette Dubost as the flighty maid Lisette, Marcel Dalio as the Marquis, Nora Gregor as the Marquise, and outside of the chattering classes, Julien Carette as the poacher Marceau who causes havoc when employed downstairs, his nemesis Gaston Modot as the gamekeeper married to a bored Lisette and Renoir himself as Octave, the childhood friend of the Marquise who still remains an outsider. Of course the best performance is by the inquisitive squirrel!
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