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...Regle du Jeu) and the critic was Andre Bazin. Bazin, mentor and saviour of the young Francois Truffaut, had written with sensitivity and insight on Renoir. Moreover, Bazin had spent his last hours before falling into a final coma watching Renoir's Le Crime de M Lange on television and drafting a short essay. This was included in a collection of Bazin's essays on Renoir edited by Truffaut. As ever, the director was equal to the occasion, writing, "I'm not sure if I deserve this tribute, but I hasten to accept. It is like receiving a firm handshake from someone you like and respect very much."
Here we are describing two (three including Truffaut) of the giants of the last century who embody the ideal relationship between artist and critic. Bazin admired Renoir but was not blind to his failings, and Renoir respected the critic's judgment. These kinds of relationships can degenerate into sycophancy: but at their best--Truffaut and Hitchcock; Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles--they can enrich our understanding of great artists and their work.
All of the above was prompted by the release on DVD of both La Regle du Jeu (1939) and Renoir's first American film, Swamp Water (1941). La Regle du Jeu was available for some years on 16mm from the now defunct Quality Films. Although it was quite a good print, the DVD from Umbrella Films is better. Much rarer is Swamp Water, and the DVD from Twentieth Century Fox is excellent.
La Regle du Jeu has an introduction delivered with characteristic panache by the director himself, filmed for screenings of the restoration. In it Renoir describes the violent hostility La Regle du Jeu evoked on its first release in 1939. At one early screening the director observed one man solemnly open a newspaper, set fire to it and try to burn down the cinema. Desperately Renoir cut the scenes that appeared to elicit the worst responses, only to find a new sequence causing new offence. Finally they were...
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