The Rules of the Game (1939)

Interesting facts

The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, Pierre Magnier and Renoir.

Production

In 1938 the French film industry was booming, and Renoir was at the height of his career. He had had three consecutive hit films and La Grande Illusion had won awards from the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review and the Venice Film Festival. The financial success of La Bête Humaine made it easy for Renoir to secure enough financial backing to form his own production company.

In May 1938, Renoir completed the historical drama La Marseillaise and wanted to make a comedy. He was anxious about the Munich Agreement and the strong possibility of another world war, and wanted to film a "happy dream" to subdue his pessimism. He wrote a synopsis for a film titled Les Millions d'Arlequin, which had characters similar to those in The Rules of the Game.

After returning from lecturing in London in January 1939, Renoir left Paris to work on a script. He told a reporter that his next film would be "A precise description of the bourgeois of our age." Renoir, Carl Koch and Zwoboda went to Marlotte to work on the script. Because Renoir wanted to allow the actors to improvise their dialogue, only one-third of the film was scripted and the rest was a detailed outline.

Renoir originally wanted the entire cast of La bête humaine – including Fernand Ledoux, Simone Simon, Jean Gabin and Julien Carette – for the film. Gabin was offered the role of André but rejected it and accepted a role in Marcel Carné's Le jour se lève instead. He was replaced by Roland Toutain. Simon was offered the role of Christine but wanted 800,000 francs, which was a third of the film's entire budget.

François suggested newly famous stage actress Michele Alfa for the role of Christine, and Renoir went with his common-law wife Marguerite and Zwoboda to see her perform in a play. While at the play Renoir noticed Nora Gregor in a box seat in the audience and asked about her during the intermission. He learned that Gregor was the wife of Prince Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, an Austrian nobleman.

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