Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 111

script girl Dido Freire, whom he had known for 12 years and was Alain Renoir's nanny. Eventually Dido married Renoir.

Renoir edited the film while shooting. His first cut was three hours long. He and editor Marguerite completed a 113 minute final cut of the film in July 1939. Jay hated it and demanded that Renoir make cuts, including the excision of Renoir's entire performance as Octave. Renoir refused to completely omit Octave but agreed to remove 13 minutes from the film.

‘The Rules of the Game’ was the most expensive film produced in France when it was released. Its original budget had been 2.5 million francs, which already made it the most expensive French film of that year, and was increased by another 2 million francs, costing over 5 million francs total.

The film had an elaborate advertising campaign that began one week before its release in anticipation of it becoming another hit film for Renoir. This campaign included a promotional crossword puzzle published three days before the film's opening night. The prize for solving the puzzle was free tickets.

The first preview screening of the 113 minute version of ‘The Rules of the Game’ took place on June 28th, 1939. It received a poor reaction from the audience. On June 29th, the film was screened for the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts