“The awful thing about life is this: Everybody has their reasons.”—Octave, The Rules of the Game
Perhaps no other line in La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) acts as a fairer summation of the movie’s plots and themes as this one, spoken by Octave, the intervening old man in a complex game of youth, love, and social impetus. It is only fitting, in a meta-filmic sort of way, that Octave is played by the film’s writer, producer, and director, the man that most would consider the greatest of all French auteurs: Jean Renoir. It’s like the author’s own film commentary, nestled into the screenplay itself, cozily and conveniently. Continue reading