Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 112

Jean Zay and for the jury of the annual Louis Delluc Prize for the best French film. When the awards were announced 10 days later, Marcel Carne's ‘Le Quai des Brumes’ won the first prize and ‘The Rules of the Game’ was not a runner-up. Because of the success and popularity of Renoir's previous films, ‘The Rules of the Game’ was highly anticipated, and Zay had expected to award it the prize. Renoir later said he thought the film would be commercially successful.

‘The Rules of the Game’ premiered on Friday, July 7th, 1939, at the Colisée Theatre in Paris to a full house and later at the Aubert Palace also in Paris. It was shown on a double bill with a patriotic documentary about French history. The audience at the screening consisted of members of the right-wing organizations, who booed after a while into the screening. Paulette Dubost said people at the screening fought, and one person tried to set fire to the theater. Renoir said he ‘depicted pleasant, sympathetic characters, but showed them in a society in the process of disintegration, so that they were defeated at the onset ..... and the audience recognized this. The truth is that they recognized themselves. People who commit suicide do not care to do it in front of witnesses.’

In France, film attendance was typically low in July. ‘The Rules of the Game’ ended its run at the Colisée Theatre after three