Reflections on the Philosophical Issues Involved in Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game

Justyn 2022-03-23 09:03:15

1. Everyone is looking for the Sartre-style "perfect moment", that is, the absurd compensation for missed opportunities, fantasy romance can overcome reality, and the pursuit of the passions of the past is wiser than them, she wrote, "I don't want to be in this life. See you again, because, goodbye, it's not you anymore." This is a basic proposition of philosophy, that is, the problem of identity, that is, "how to prove that the present you and the past you are the same you". Trying to return to the old romantic time with an old lover is often worth the loss, all in vain, and even dangerous. That's what "Rules of the Game" shows: she's not the her she used to be, and he's not the he he used to be, so why bother?

2. At the end of the film, A watched B kill C, but there was no response. This is also a philosophical proposition, that is, Heidegger, Sartre and others "criticize the unauthentic": the tendency to passively conform to the crowd, do what others do, and believe what others believe, not doing their own thinking or thinking according to their own action. Such people are very dangerous, because when others are doing unreasonable or even inhuman things, in order to make themselves gregarious and not isolated, then follow the crowd. It is not difficult to explain why the Holocaust, the Nanjing Massacre, and China's magnificent 10 years.

The film, which was completed before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, was hindered by the political sensitivities of the subsequent war.

So a subtitle at the beginning of the film: This film was shot before World War II and has nothing to do with politics.

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Extended Reading
  • Bernardo 2022-03-27 09:01:20

    Everyone is a liar. (The middle part is too reminiscent of Fellini)

  • Camden 2022-03-24 09:03:35

    High society love is the fusion of two fantasies and the contact of two bodies. Disgusting morality. Demons, they are all demons.

The Rules of the Game quotes

  • Octave: She's a society woman and society has strict rules!

  • Lisette, sa camériste: So, Mr. Octave! No hello?

    Octave: Hello, Lisette.

    [kiss on the neck]

    Octave: Fresh as a rose.

    Lisette, sa camériste: But you look awful.