Ep 4.3 // The Rules of the Game

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07/20/22 • 66 min

It’s Jeremiah’s 4th pick: The Rules of the Game, the 1939 film directed by Jean Renoir.

‘The Rules of the Game’ was the most expensive film ever made in France at the time of its production and came on the heels of a series of successful films that had made Renoir one of the top French directors. After initial preview screenings that began in June of 1939 and a premier in July that met with low box-office and mixed reviews, a series of edits eventually whittled the film down from its 113 minute runtime to 85 minute; many of the edits excised Renoir’s own performance, resulting in a much less complex and integral character. By October, the film was banned in France for being "depressing, morbid, immoral [and] having an undesirable influence over the young." A successful 1956 attempt at restoration led to the discovery of negatives and other prints and audio for the film that had been thought lost during World War II. Eventually, with advice from Renoir, a 106 minute cut was assembled that largely restored what had been cut after the film’s post-release failure. This restoration was screened for Renoir in 1959 and reportedly left the director in tears.

Director Satyajit Ray – whose film, ‘Pather Panchali,’ we’ll be watching for an upcoming episode – said of The Rules of the Game: it is “a film that doesn't wear its innovations on its sleeve ... Humanist? Classical? Avant-Garde? Contemporary? I defy anyone to give it a label. This is the kind of innovation that appeals to me."

For our purposes, this is the only film that’s been in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics poll every single time since it began in 1952, when it debuted at number 10 (even before it’s restoration). It then fluctuated between number 2 and number 3 from 1962 to 2002 and was at number 4 in 2012. Additionally, it was on the directors poll in 2002, at number 9. In the 2012 polling, 100 critics had the film on their list – and 17 directors, including Olivier Assayas, Lawrence Kasdan, Steve McQueen, and Paul Schrader.

Produced by Stereoactive Media

It’s Jeremiah’s 4th pick: The Rules of the Game, the 1939 film directed by Jean Renoir.

Produced by Stereoactive Media

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Ep 4.2 // Hiroshima Mon Amour

It’s Alicia’s 4th pick: Hiroshima Mon Amour, the 1959 film directed by Alain Resnais.

With ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour,’ Resnais and screenwriter Marguerite Duras, explore the intersection where tragedy and trauma meet history and memory.

The film was released on May 8, 1959 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize.

Among its other accolades was recognition by Cahiers du Cinéma on its list of the top 10 films of 1959, where it was ranked 2nd after Kenji Mizoguchi’s ‘Ugetsu.’

It opened in the United States in May of 1960 and went on to earn Marguerite Duras an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

To give a sense of what was popular in the United States in the years ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ was first released, then when it opened in the United States, the top grossing films in North America for 1959 and 1960 were Ben-Hur and Spartacus, respectively. Meanwhile, Ben-Hur was also the big winner at the Oscars for 1959, while The Apartment was the big winner for 1960.

For our purposes, the film has never been in the top 10 of either the critics or directors polls done by Sight and Sound magazine to determine the greatest films ever made. It did, though, place, as a runner-up in both 1962 and 1972.

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Ep 4.4 // Persona

It’s Mia’s 4th pick: Persona, the 1966 film directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Persona is a film that is open to much interpretation about its themes, meaning, and maybe even its plot. In the most basic way, it’s the story of a well known Swedish actress who suffers an emotional shutdown and is put in a hospital. It’s explained that there is nothing wrong with her either mentally or physically, but she is completely unwilling to move or speak. A nurse is assigned to her, but a lack of any progress soon leads the attending doctor to send the actress, with her nurse, to a seaside cottage. With the actress still not speaking, but beginning to otherwise take part in life, the nurse finds a willing set of ears to spill her thoughts and secrets to. This eventually leads to a seeming betrayal of confidence. Meanwhile, both for the nurse and for the audience, the identities of the women become increasingly blurred.

Persona was Ingmar Bergman’s 27th film as a director and was released 20 years after his first. It also came about a decade after The Seventh Seal firmly established him as a well-known name of world cinema. The experimental opening moments of the film effectively set up an experience that is harder to pin down than other, more mainstream films. Discussion and debate about how to interpret Persona tend to follow several different lines, from identity, gender, and sexuality to Jungian psychology, art, and even vampirism.

For our purposes, Persona only appeared in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics poll once, in 1972, when it was ranked 5th. In 2012, it was tied with The Seventh Samurai at number 17 on the wider critics poll, and it was ranked number 13 on the directors poll.

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