MovieChat Forums > La règle du jeu (1950) Discussion > Question about Criterion DVD

Question about Criterion DVD


Can anyone who owns the Criterion of this film please tell me what the length of the film is? I've just seen the BFI dvd and it's 110 minutes. But I've heard the Criterion is only 106.

Anyone got the answer?

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[deleted]

[deleted]

Criterion has occasionally been off by a few minutes in labeling a film's running time. They say their DVD for Pygmalion is about 90 minutes long, but it's actually 96 minutes (a good thing, since that's the length of the original British version). So they might have underestimated the running time for The Rules of the Game as well.

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I have this DVD and it is exactly 106 min.

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Just a shot in the dark here but it might just be running at a different frame rate. I know sometimes films play at 24 FPS or 25 FPS and this time adds up over the length of a film.

-It's envy you know. Dudley is consumed with envy.
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[deleted]

DVDBeaver has a comparison of the DVDs here:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare6/rulesofthegame.htm

The BFI and the Criterion seem to be the same length when you account for the 4% PAL speedup on the BFI disc.

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The 4% PAL speedup causes the running time of Reg.2 DVDs to be shorter than that of Reg.1 DVDs.

That website says the BFI DVD runs just for 101 minutes (shorter than 106), not 110 like the OP said.

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The criterion disc is 106 minutes long. According to film critics and historians, this is the version that was originally released, minus 1 scene that was not important according to Renoir.

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According to the Criterion disc's suplements:

Technically wrong MacAindrais, that 106 minute runtime is the length of the 1959 restoration (done by others with Renoir's blessing but not his direct involvement) which is 12 minutes longer than the original film at its preview which was 94 minutes (it was then cut down to 81 minutes for the rest of its 1939 release), but yes it does cut that one scene. Just watched the movie, commentary and versions comparisons on the Criterion disc late last night/early this morning.

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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.

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It is not the original but a very similar version missing one minor scene. It was reconstructed by the director himself from negatives and film that survived after the original was lost when the building it was stored in was bombed by the Allies during WWII.

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I own the DVD and it indeed says 106 minutes. Its probably just off by four minutes, considering criterion generally releases the most complete verions of its films.

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The recently restored version we are showing at the theatre I work at runs 116 minutes.

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