I rented Rules of the Game on videotape a few years ago. I could have sworn that everybody's relationship with everyone else was explained in expository dialogue in the first five minutes of the movie. I watched the Criterion edition last night, and that scene was gone.

Has anyone else seen this scene? Am I imagining things? Did I see the short version in the late 90s, 40 years after the extended cut was created?

I don't remember such a scene in the beginning of Rules. IIRC, it begins with various shots of the main characters listening to or watching the arrival of the Great Aviator. Are you confusing it with Gosford Park?

I've only seen the beginning of Rules of the Game on the Criterion DVD, but I doubt he's confusing it with Gosford Park. That movie starts out with a car ride in the rain to the mansion where the bulk of the story is set. The dialogue in the openning is incidental and to set the tone of the era, it's not expository.

Nick, have you checked Rules' alternate versions entry over at IMDB?