SummaryA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
Directed By:Jean Renoir
Written By:Jean Renoir, Carl Koch, Beaumarchais
The Rules of the Game
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
99
User score
Generally Favorable
7.4
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
95% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
Humor, poignancy and social criticism converge for an even better movie than the recent one it brings to mind: Gosford Park. [23 Jan 2004]
100
There's so much to say, but let this suffice: See it; it's a sweet taste of the best of what cinema can do. [16 Mar 2007, p.28]
User score
Generally Favorable
74% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
18% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
9% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Sep 10, 2025
6
I can see the craft behind it—the camerawork and social critique stand out—but it just didn’t grab me. The pacing is slow, the humor didn’t land, and I never really connected with the characters. Respectable, but not very enjoyable.
100
Perhaps the most influential of all French films, and one of the most richly entertaining.
100
One of cinema's most monumental achievements, Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME passionately tackles the pre-WWII French class system, and succeeds in bringing forth the complexities and frailties underlying bourgeois civility.
100
Rules would have been just another good movie if not for its masterly visual design. With it, however, the black-and-white film enters the realm of immortality.
100
This magical and elusive work, which always seems to place second behind "Citizen Kane" in polls of great films, is so simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous, that you can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it.
40
As an experiment it’s interesting, but Jean Renoir, who directs, wrote the scenario and dialog, and takes a leading role, has made a common error: he attempts to crowd too many ideas into 80 minutes of film fare, resulting in confusion.
Mar 26, 2025
3
Creo que es una película insustancial, intrascendente y frívola. Y lo entiendo, es decir, querían hacer una representación de la aristocracia francesa, que incluso en momentos tan decisivos como el inicio de una guerra, les importaba tan poco y lo único en lo que radicaban sus pensamientos era en seguir comportándose como lo haría una élite desconectada de la realidad. El problema es que, aun así, y aunque la representación podría ser bastante crítica y fiel, para mí fue terriblemente tedioso ver esta película. Entiendo que algunas personas, en un imaginario, sigan creyendo que la vida de estas personas, entonces y en la actualidad, es el pináculo al que todas las personas quieren alcanzar, pero creo que alguien medianamente crítico sabe que no es cierto, y que más bien lo ideal sería ignorar y dejar de vanagloriar vidas tan vacías, por lo que, para mí, es una pésima película.
Production Company:
- Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)
Release Date:Apr 8, 1950
Duration:1 h 50 m
Tagline:One of the two or three greatest films ever made in France.
Awards
Bodil Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Online Film & Television Association
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Village Voice Film Poll
• 1 Nomination
