1.9.23

Jean Renoir on “The Rules of the Game [La régle du jeu]” from MY LIFE AND MY FILMS, p. 173

In The Rules of the Game (1939), I passed on what I knew to the public. But this is something that people do not like; the truth makes them feel uncomfortable. [The film was a resounding flop, to which the reaction was a kind of loathing. . . . the public as a whole regarded it as a personal insult. . . . At every session I attended I could feel the unanimous disapproval of the audience.] A quarter of a century later I gave a lecture at Harvard University. The Rules of the Game was showing at a nearby cinema. There was a burst of cheering when I appeared on the platform. The students were applauding the film. Since then its reputation has steadily grown. What seemed an insult to society in 1939 has become clear-sightedness.

But the fact remains that the failure of The Rules of the Game so depressed me that I resolved either to give up the cinema or to leave France.