7pm
Rules of the Game
(La Regle du Jeu, Jean Renoir, France, in French w/ Eng. St., 110 min., 35mm, 1939)
New 35mm print!
Jean Renoir's masterpiece The Rules of the Game is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners. At a weekend hunting party, amorous escapades abound among the aristocratic guests and are mirrored by the activities of the servants downstairs. The refusal of one of the guests to play by society's rules sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. “One walks away from it drained and exhilarated, after experiencing a whole world and seemingly every possible emotion in a few swift golden hours.” – Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
9h30pm
The Grand Illusion
(La Grande Illusion, Jean Renoir, France, in French w/ Eng. St., 114 min., 35mm, 1938)
Jean Renoir's antiwar masterpiece follows a pair of French soldiers held in a World War I German prison camp. Moved from camp to camp they continually befriend their fellow prisoners and work to escape. Eventually they arrive in a so-called inescapable prison along with some familiar faces amongst both prisoners and guards. Declared “cinema enemy number one” by Joseph Goebbels shortly after its premiere, Grand Illusion is a moving tale of friendship, class, and humanism.
