It would certainly be easy to write a traditional, linear narrative about a man taking revenge on the man who dares to have an affair with his fiancée. However, in The Rules of the Game, scriptwriter Sam Michell crafts a plotline that maximizes curiosity and tension in the audience.
Michell has our main character breaking the fourth wall and outlining to the audience what a hypothetical man (clearly himself) would do in a hypothetical situation concerning an affair (clearly what he’s embroiled in). Creatively, the character explains everything while moving about an estate he’s renting, speaking in between his trivial explorations and wanderings.
This formula puts the audience on edge. The first question runs through the background of the mind of the viewer: why is he in this mansion? Next, the obvious follow-up: how did he get here? Because the setting of the storyteller does not match with the settings of the stories he is telling, the audience tries to find a logical link between the two. This absolutely glued me to the screen. Maybe it’s the location of a funeral. Maybe he’s setting some sort of trap. Maybe it’s a fake honeymoon he plans on luring his amorous fiancée and best man to. No matter what the speculation, the outcome is that the audience is fully engaged and emotionally invested in the storyline.
This is enhanced by the character’s constant steps backward in his stories. With the phrase “of course not”, our lead takes back a part of his story quicker than it happened. Suddenly, he didn’t castrate the best man, or he didn’t plan out the elaborate revelation of incriminating pictures at his wedding. This had me completely taken aback. Unusually enough, Michell seems ready to throw away lengthy chunks of character and plot development at a moment’s notice – and the result is shocking. If any of the main character’s plans and back-stories could be false, then what is the true reason he is in the estate? We as an audience are kept constantly guessing, and, inevitably, burning with curiosity to find out the truth.
Although the impeccable acting, brilliant camerawork and quirky dark humor completed this short movie, the script structure was the root of its success. Telling the story from an unreliable narrator’s flashbacks kept a standard tale of revenge very fresh indeed.
Watch Here: The Rules of the Game
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