An Allied bombing raid destroyed the only negative in 1942, but in 1956 two fans of the film discovered 200 tins of rushes and were able to put together an almost complete copy of the original. The use of Realist camera techniques is very evident in this film, though they are never used self-consciously. The main techniques to notice are the large depth of field, the constant camera movement and the long take. Renoir 1 had lenses especially ground for this film to enable him to change focus fluidly to capture multiplane movement. A long take with panning and many refocuses can more economically and smoothly connect characters and ideas than a series of cl ose-ups 2 .
Great use is made of off-screen movement to indicate the limiting effect of the frame.
The frame is a metaphor for society that Renoir used in many of his films. Society tries to hold down a nd enclose people whose lives are governed by natural forces and not social ones. The Impressionist art of his father is not the only source of inspiration evident in the film. Renoir was very interested in the writing of Musset. Octave, the generous parasite played by Jean Renoir himself in La Regle du jeu takes his name from a charac ter in Musset's Les Caprices de Mariane.