Claude Gauteur surveyed reviews of " The Rules of the Game " published in Paris and said twelve were " unqualifiedly unfavorable ", thirteen were " favorable with reservations " and ten were " favorable . " Many reviews criticized the film for being " unpatriotic, frivolous and incomprehensible . " One mixed review came from Nino Frank of " Pour Vous ", who called it " a copious work, even too much so, very complex and profoundly intelligent from one end to the other . " " Le Figaro " called it a " bizarre spectacle " which was " one long succession of errors . . . a heavy-handed fantasy with wooly dialogue . " In the 1943 edition of " Histoire du cin�ma ", Robert Brasillach wrote that " The Rules of the Game " was among Renoir's most " jumbled " and " confused " films but applauded the biting satire, which he considered " Proustian . " Brasillach also praised the technical variation employed by the director and said the film was an unrealized masterpiece.
