The Bottom Line
A must-have DVD for anybody who cares about film.
Pros
- Simply put, one of the greatest films ever made
- Two-Disc Criterion Collection edition with quality special features
Cons
- You might think less of other films after seeing what Renoir achieved in 1939
Description
- Jean Renoir, France, 1939. 106 mins.
- New high-defnition digital transfer with restored image and sound
- Introduction by Jean Renoir
- Audio commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
- Version comparison: side-by-side analysis of the two endings of the film
- Selected scene analysis by Renoir historian Christopher Faulkner
- French and BBC television programs about Renoir
- New video essay about the film's production, release and later reconstruction
- Interviews with Renoir's son Alain, set designer Max Douy, actress Mila Parely
- Written tributes to the film by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, and others
Guide Review - The Rules of the Game DVD
Jean Renoir's "The Rules of the Game" is regularly voted second-best film ever made in critics' polls (after "Citizen Kane"), and thanks to Criterion, anybody with a DVD player can now take a look at the restored version of the film to find out why. Unsurpassed in wit, poetry, elegant characterization, and sweepingly effective use of the camera, Jean Renoir's film does not disappoint. Concerned with the manners of a vanishing class on the eve of World War II, it tells the story of several criss-crossing pairs of lovers who meet their fate over the course of a hunting weekend at a chateau. Richly textured, the film rewards repeated viewings with new layers of appreciation of one of the reigning classics of world film.
The Criterion Collection does the film justice with a lavishly appointed two-dvd set that explores the film's troubled history, controversial reception, and powerful influence on filmmakers from Robert Altman to Woody Allen, Wim Wenders to Francois Truffaut.
