The Rules of the Game

I has always been on my top ten list -- a brilliantly satirical look at the farce and foibles of the elite.

I have seen the film in a theater many years ago.
Now the DVD is called "DVD of DVD's" in the NYT article.

It's been released in various incomplete forms and is still incomplete -- actually one significant scene is left out that ties into the final frenzy of everyone kind of spinning around like tops -- it is truly Shakespearean. It's funny and tragic at the same time -- "L'Avventura"holds a mirror up to society with the same idea of the exposing the facile oblivion in the lives of the very rich. Many hated that movie when it was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival. In visually showing the bereft monotony of the elite, it was necessarily stark with an ominous bleakness. Renoir disguised his commentary on the society he was very much involved with himself in farcical humor. Both kind of hit the same note in displaying a kind of heartless cavorting.

I was impressed with the beautiful images of the Michelangelo Antonioni's film.
Fellini's Dolce Vita describes some class of Rome from a unique angle.

The images in "L'Aventura" had the look of holiday travelogue snapshots but only if taken by a consumate professional. The composition of the arrangement of characters on the island in the beginning of the movie inspires speculation about the psychology of the milieu. It's also prophetic of the directionless meandering into the shallow and sordid affairs to follow, of people trying to manufacture relationships.


It's basically the same movie as "The Rules of the Game" and both are on my top ten list frequently (as that changes from time to time).

It must be noted The Rules of the Game was taken immediately before WWII.

That is a significant fact.