Claude Gauteur surveyed reviews of "The Rules of the Game" published in Paris and said 12 were "unqualifiedly unfavorable", 13 were "favorable with reservations", and 10 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 cinéma", 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. In the United States, a negative review from "Variety" said Renoir "attempts to crowd too many ideas into 80 minutes of film fare, resulting in confusion." According to François Truffaut, the film was very disconcerting to audiences at the time because of its peculiar atmosphere, which explains its commercial failure.