MovieChat Forums > La règle du jeu (1950) Discussion > Amazing Movie

Amazing Movie

posted 18 years ago by JimLoneWolf
10 replies | jump to latest

This film was so far ahead of its time, its astounding. My favorite thing about this film is the way in which it single-handedly created what is now commonly referred to as the "Altman film"; rich, humanistic (yet somehow operatic) pictures that feature many different characters speaking and interacting simultaneously in order to present an "objective" view of "subjective" behavior.

In many ways, it is more satisfying than much of Altman's work, although it's hard to argue with the belief that Altman shaped and perfected this genre so that younger auteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh could deconstruct and experiment with it.

It is truly fitting that perhaps Altman's final 100% masterpiece was Gosford Park, a film that serves as a cinematic "thank you" to Renoir's influential masterpiece.

And who else found Renoir trying to get that bear suit off one of the funniest moments in ANY movie? When he fell down I must have laughed for a good 30 seconds. Classic physical comedy, in the last place I ever expected to find it. This is a wonderful movie.

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[–] mountainguy 18 years ago

I agree with your assessment, JimLoneWolf. I just saw this film in a beautifully restored print at the Film Forum in NYC and for the first time I understand and appreciate its greatness. I had seen it 3 times before over the years (always in inferior prints) but had not responded to it in this way until now.

[–] Aulic Exclusiva 17 years ago

There is a lot of splapstick in this film. And compare Renoir's appearing in a bear's suit with the bear in Luís Buñuel's Exterminating Angel!

[–] enbilal 17 years ago

Great film. Relevant today just as when it was made.

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[–] evzMan 17 years ago

I agree. This is one of the greatest movies of all time.

[–] droche-3 17 years ago

No it is not. It contains graphic scenes of bunnies getting slaughtered. Not my idea of entertainment. Perhaps you might also like the Freddie Kruger series. It is even more violent, and does not contain antisemetic slurs, as this one did.

"When you throw dirt, you lose ground" --old proverb

[–] thatweirdguy_44 17 years ago

I believe that this was done to prove a point. The bunnies were killed to show how the aristocrats kill far more than is necessary. And for what? Because they can and no one is going to stop them. It is also used to compare the way that the pilot falls in the end of the movie. It shows how he was just another "rabbit" caught in the crosshairs of the aristocrats. True it was not necessary for them to actually kill all of those animals, but for they didn't have the special effects to pretend to slaughter them... =)

[–] ducdebrabant 16 years ago

The anti-Semitic slurs are pretty mild, as such things go, and when somebody brings up the Marquis' ancestry in the kitchen, the chef quickly sets him straight. Besides, Robert is an extremely endearing character. They all are, really. I hope you're not suggesting the film is anti-Semitic. Hardly.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 9 years ago

I believe the issue of their host and his Jewish background was a deliberate inclusion because of what was occurring in Europe at the time. The fact that the film is set on the eve of a war, and one in which Jewish people would be slaughtered en masse, is not a coincidence.

A bird sings and the mountain's silence deepens.

[–] Chapaev36 17 years ago

You missed the essential Altman aspect to this this and other Altman/Renoir films - the use of the long take.

[–] ducdebrabant 16 years ago

Renoir was a wonderful actor. I love him in La Bete Humaine too.