The only thing _The Rules of the Game_ has to offer is great direction. Perhaps too great. I felt that the film was all style with little substance. While the camera movements and mise-en-scene are spectacular, most of the characters are one dimensional. Some are interesting. I liked Octave, the husband, Marceau, and Lisette. But the main two characters are completely uninteresting. Andre is a one dimensional character who appears only once in a while in the film. Christine is a zero-dimensional character who seems to have no thoughts or opinions on her situation whatsoever. Whoever comes to her, she loves them. I didn't believe she was confused for a second. More like she had an empty head.
SPOILERS:
But I did enjoy the film a lot before I figured out how it would end. At that point, I threw up my hands and gave up. Most of the film was kind of light with an existential flavor. I liked that. I still didn't like the main two characters, but I did enjoy the mood produced elsewhere in the film. Even when Schumacher was chasing the very funny Marceau around the mansion with a pistol, it was funny. It should have seemed ridiculous, but it seemed in the spirit of French comedy. But when those two were fired, and they mistake Christine for Lisette, everything becomes exceedingly silly. Anyway, it was a very simplistic and cop-out way to end the film. The mood and rhythm were completely disrupted and we are left with a rather hackneyed conclusion. To think, the man who made possibly the greatest anti-war film ever, _La Grande Illusion_, made this weak-kneed film. 7/10.
SPOILERS:
But I did enjoy the film a lot before I figured out how it would end. At that point, I threw up my hands and gave up. Most of the film was kind of light with an existential flavor. I liked that. I still didn't like the main two characters, but I did enjoy the mood produced elsewhere in the film. Even when Schumacher was chasing the very funny Marceau around the mansion with a pistol, it was funny. It should have seemed ridiculous, but it seemed in the spirit of French comedy. But when those two were fired, and they mistake Christine for Lisette, everything becomes exceedingly silly. Anyway, it was a very simplistic and cop-out way to end the film. The mood and rhythm were completely disrupted and we are left with a rather hackneyed conclusion. To think, the man who made possibly the greatest anti-war film ever, _La Grande Illusion_, made this weak-kneed film. 7/10.