1. Film and Society
In 1939, France was filled with an air of pessimism and disappointment. After experiencing the Great Depression and political turmoil, the French intellectual community, which had always advocated freedom, rationality and democracy, was increasingly losing its nourishing soil. In the face of the frenzied rise of fascism, intellectuals and ordinary people are very powerless to defend justice and truth. The secular society gradually abandoned the pursuit of truth, and turned to yearning for great material domination, full of desire for power and glory, which made lies, injustice, and irrational behavior become the mainstream. The economic crisis that started in 1929 lasted for an unusually long time in France, and until 1935, it was not completely out of the predicament. The economic crisis was accompanied by endless political struggles. In the January parliamentary elections, France has replaced a total of 8 cabinets, all of which have stepped down due to their inability to cope with the economic crisis. The average term of each term is less than 4 months. The French Third Republic was teetering in frequent changes of power. From 1935 to 1938, the French Popular Front went from th rule".
Corresponding to the unique history from World War I to World War II, the French film industry also showed a unique change, from the avant-garde film movement that was freely swayed after World War I to the poetic realism of the 1930s. Poetic realism films are expressed as naturalism in text, humanism in creation, poetic in form and so on. Through the use of light, chiaroscuro, picture atmosphere, music, and metaphorical props, a poetic representation of reality is carried out. As Bazin said: "Although these films have their own characteristics, they all have some indisputable commonalities, and their similarities in play and style are obvious, so people often call it the pre-war French film. 'Black realism'... In fact, the 'black realism' of French cinema at the time was a pessimistic romanticism, it was a 'realism' full of social fantasies." It mainly emphasized a generally dark, moral Despair and an atmosphere of pessimism and despair. The rise of poetic realism also has its technical reasons. After the popularity of sound films, due to the inconvenience of shooting and collecting sound in the wild, the film set and scenery suddenly became important, and the film also shifted from direct presentation to atmosphere creation. The gloomy street scene often heralds a gloomy life theme. This kind of unease is blended into the unique romance and lyricism of the French, thus bringing out a sentimental and desolate beauty.
The representative of poetic realism is Jean Renoir, the son of the Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir. His images inherited the impressionist style of his father, advocating a form of expression between poetry and nature, recording life. When not mixed with subjective feelings, Jiao Xiongping commented on Renoir, "His pessimism is not as thorough as that of Divivier or Carney. Although the characters he creates have inherent sadness due to the environment, but in the end they all end up with a kind of pessimism. Equal and gentle humanism embraces the weaknesses of the characters, so that the brilliance of life and humanity emerges from the bottom of the work.”
Renoir is more consistent with the left-wing Popular Front in politics, which makes his images show a sense of loss to the real society, which is very suitable for the characteristics of that era. At that time, France was filled with pessimism and hopelessness. Factories closed down, workers lost their jobs, and fascism sprout. The film is a reflection of collective despair, which is embodied in "Rules of the Game" as a kind of cocooning rule, hidden behind the silence, and the superstructure is precarious. At the same time, it was an era when the upbringing of aristocratic gentlemen was severely impacted by popular culture. The result of the collision between the two was a lose-lose state, which further exacerbated the entire social contradiction. Just like the two parallel worlds of nobles and servants constructed by Renoir in "Rules of the Game", the film begins with a quote from Beaumarchais' "The Marriage of Figaro", "a sensitive heart, a loyal heart. Wherever you go, who can escape? Don’t be so painful. Is it a sin to want to change? Cupid has wings, doesn’t it also swipe away?” On the surface, it seems easy to joke, but it hides deep helplessness. It seems that Schumacher is not Figaro, purely to defend his love and teach the arrogant aristocratic class. In the process of arguing and chasing in the film, the behavior of people of the two classes is strikingly similar, equally jealous, and equally hypocritical and ignorant. After Robert's fight with Yurier, Robert's speech pointed out what Renoir wanted to express: "When I read in the newspaper that a Spanish mason beat a Polish miner to death because of jealousy, I I once thought that there would never be such a thing in our society. But I didn't expect such a thing to happen, it really happens."
Second, the rules of the game
"Rules of the Game" is like the death knell of the French Third Republic. The corruption and extravagance of the superstructure is embodied in the empty and boring life of the nobles in the Corigner Manor. These elites who claim to represent the society are lost in the whirlpool of emotions. They have no control over the course of events and no control over their own destiny. Renoir shrewdly brought together a group of people representing different classes in a gathering to paint a complex and diverse panorama of society. And lies have become the rules for compiling this group. There is no need for a sincere person or a sober person in the "iron house", just like the film said, "People who commit suicide do not like to be seen by others." A dying society doesn't need the lamentations of the wise. In fact, Renoir goes beyond the critique of his time and goes straight to the very essence of human beings—a tragedy of cocooning and self-deception. Society is the stage of the game, everyone lives under the mask hypocritically, and those who break the rules must be eliminated. There is no difference between good and evil, let alone true and false, says Okotau. "The worst thing about sin in life is that everyone has his reasons." The
film begins with one tone: sincerity Those who will be unwilling. Pilot Andre Yurier returned from a cross-Atlantic flight, and everyone regarded him as a hero, expecting to hear some exciting words when he was greeted at the airport, but he was infinitely disappointed. In Ostau's words: "You are a hero, but you act like a spoiled child. You just came back from the United States, broke a lot of records, everyone welcomes you as a hero, the prime minister gives speeches, but you don't Accept it humbly and calmly, play your role as a national hero, and do not let the radio audience hear the rhetoric they want to hear, but you are aggrieved because of Christine (not coming to greet you), in front of so many people. Face!" In Ostau's view, Christine is a socialite and has her own rules, "This is also a phenomenon in today's society, now everyone lies, pharmacy leaflets, government, radio, movies, newspapers Why should simple people like us lie?" Because they can't help themselves.
The Corigner Manor was originally a place where the upper-class nobles were drunk, but they became uneasy because of a few people who did not follow the rules. A pilot - Andre Yurier, a wanderer - Ostau, and a poacher - Marshaw, the intrusion of these three broke the original calm and made the truth concealed by lies. gradually surfaced. Yurier pursues sincere love, Austau has insight into the absurdity of the world, Machaut nakedly transforms the vice of cheating, their words and deeds are not in line with the hypocritical society that seeks calm on the surface, Renoir tore the skin of tenderness, All ugliness exposed. The corruption and disintegration of the aristocracy and the ignorance and impulsiveness of the commoners are all disappointing. Renoir subtly interspersed the duel between Robert and Yurier, the dispute between Robert and his lover Genevieve, and Schumacher's pursuit of Machau, and edited the actions of people in two different worlds. . People are surprised to find that these people are so similar in nature, jealous, hypocritical and narrow-minded. The ultimate goal is to maintain those ridiculous "rules", and what is even more surprising is that the executor of maintaining the "rules" actually comes from the seemingly opposite class of the nobles, the reckless and ignorant manor keeper. For Renoir, the seemingly irreconcilable classes are actually quite similar, playing the same game and obeying the same "rules".
In fact, in "Rules of the Game", everyone is full of uncertainty about their own future and feelings, and the daydreams of the fallen nobles deceiving themselves look ridiculous and pitiful. For them, all actions are just to fill the emptiness and despair in their hearts, cheating, games, and hunting. Life is like a game, and the game has rules, whether you follow it or not, there will be a moment to end. Everyone is a chess piece, and they are both indispensable and dispensable to the entire game of chess. This contradictory state is manifested in the sway and uncertainty of each character in the film about their own future and emotional tendencies. Genevieve said to Robert, "Believe it or not, you are very important to me, I don't know if it's because of love or because of habit." This is also Christine to her husband Robert and Yuri Ye, Ostau's attitude, this ambiguous mood is concentrated at the end of the film. After Yurier was killed by Schumacher by mistake, Christine, who wanted to elope with her, returned to her husband. It has not happened, everyone continues to fall and sink under the face of hypocrisy...
3. The black dance of death
"Rules of the Game" lurks a dark undercurrent of pessimism under the peaceful appearance. The film uses the hunting grounds and interiors of the Corigner Manor as the main scene, and the narrative space is dark and atmospheric. Renoir skillfully used the depth-of-field lens developed after "The Bitch". This kind of image language with clear vision allows each character in the film to present parallel and different postures. With a large number of mobile photography, Renoir outlines a picture A myriad of mundane images. "Rules of the Game" mainly uses medium and close-up framing shots, pointing directly to the hearts of the characters. Its realism features are obvious, and many techniques are original. In terms of content, the film shows the same broad and rich tolerance as the novel. There are many characters in the film, and people of all classes and personalities have a stage to show themselves. The plot is very complex, with overlapping clues, showing the colorful and changing world from multiple angles, with an extremely profound contemplative temperament.
Death has almost become the fate that pervades the whole film, although Renoir once said, "We are going to make a 'happy' drama, which is a wish of my life." However, "Rules of the Game" is under the appearance of banter, but Hidden grief. In the first part of the hunting scene in the film, Renoir used realistic footage to describe the scene of the death of small animals. After the gunshots, there was a mess, and the weak lives fell to the ground, inevitably dying in convulsions. Although it was those small animals who died, the effect caused by Renoir made people confront the fate of these hunters. In the process of the decline of the noble class, why is it not the same fate for these people? Powerless to struggle in the rolling tide of the times. The weakness of these people is also manifested in their ambiguous attitude towards poachers and their inability to control the arbitrary behavior of their servants.
Another plot of the film about the meaning of death is the party in the manor. On the stage, the god of death dances with the skeleton, and off the stage, the master and the servant chase after each other. The two scenes complement each other, which just points to the era of rampant fascism and the dance of demons. When Schumacher chased after Machau with a gun, the guests all raised their hands in cooperation, which was an image of waiting to die. In all eyes, Schumacher chasing Marshaw is also part of the show, everything is a game, hunting, dancing, even killing. It is because of this that when Schumacher killed Yurier by mistake, everyone was so indifferent. Because for them, Yuriye is a rebel of the rules. His sincerity challenges everyone's hypocrisy and embarrassed everyone. Only by clearing it can the panic be eliminated. Schumacher inadvertently became the executioner who enforced the "rules". The ignorance of this class is doomed that they can only become followers of the changing times, and even supporters of the dark forces, a tool to be used.
The film also shows the contradictions within a dying class, who deceive each other and are not on the outside. The seemingly humorous dialogue is full of holes. They talk, but never really communicate, or they simply don't want to reveal their hearts. The principle of moderation has not created the expected harmony, despair is accompanied by loss, and various signs of the whole society convey a panic of "the storm is about to come and the wind is full of buildings".
View more about The Rules of the Game reviews
