renoir ( film )
michel bouquet plays the impressionist pierre - auguste renoir in “renoir. ” the film features paintings by the forger guy ribes .
andrew sarris, a film critic for the new york observer and a professor of film at columbia university, is at work on a study of the american sound film .
renoir was the first to film a maigret novel with la nuit du carrefour (1932) .
gregor, ulrich, editor, jean renoir und seine film: eine dokumentation, bad ems, 1970 .
you know where to go to tell us about your favorite jean renoir film. ‘til then, bon appetit !
reid' s film index (wyong), no. 16, 1995 .
despite last year’s best foreign film oscar going to the french language, paris - set amour, the film was an entry of director michel haneke ’s native austria. the last french film to win the oscar was 1993’s indochine with catherine deneuve .
renoir, jean, lettres d' amérique, edited by dido renoir and alexander sesonske, paris, 1984 .
“of course, nothing is ever fixed or absolute. ” —jean renoir, “conversation with jean renoir” (1962 )
one would expect a film about french artist pierre - auguste renoir to look beautiful, to be shot in warm, sumptuous colors. and one would not be disappointed in gilles bourdos'
renoir .
and the studio left him alone to create it, but it was a cautiously made film; a film with more action / reaction shots than he used typically, fewer long scenes, a film with more coverage. renoir was more careful and conventional than usual as the film served an ideology, a system of ideas, and he wanted to be sure it was completed, circulated, seen, and understood. (renoir felt he was representing france .) yet, about
stately to a fault, the film is not enough drama, too much still life .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
, a film set in the united states, based on a book of stories by george sessions perry, with david loew as a producer of the film, renoir describes how he responded to the subject and rewrote the script, affirming, “it’s a film that i did with complete freedom, and right from the beginning it was a rather ambitious film” (18). (the african - american director charles burnett, whose works include
founded in 1999, senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film - related content on the internet .
special thanks: mathieu fournet, amélie garin - davet—film, tv and new media department of the cultural services of the french embassy, new york; emmanuelle marchand—consulate of france in boston; hannah prouse—national film and television archive, british film institute; todd wiener, steven hill—ucla film and television archive; katie trainor—museum of modern art, new york; jean gagnon—cinémathèque québécoise; daniel rooney—national archives .
renoir, jean, and hugo butler, the southerner, in best film plays of 1945, edited by john gassner and dudley nichols, new york, 1946 .
the rules of the game by jean renoir nouvelles editions francaises; france, 1939 producer: claude renoir sr. screenplay: jean renoir, carl koch, andre zwoboda cinematography: jean bachelet production design: eugene lourie, max douy editor: marguerite (mathieu) renoir
the second point is the question of stars and authorship. renoir’s happy sharing of the credit with his actors did not fit well with the auteur theory that advocated the director’s single vision. at the level of production, gabin was instrumental in getting the film off the ground. at the level of reception, while renoir was recognised and rewarded as the director of la grande illusion, the film was also seen as a great ensemble piece and, for a significant part of the audience, a ‘gabin film’. by contrast, in those terms, la règle du jeu cannot be anything but a ‘renoir film’ .
the biopic beat out
the past ,
which took home an acting prize at the cannes film festival .
the lower depths is a jean renoir film based on the max gorky play, of which there is also a kurosawa version. the play was set in russia, and we are lucky enough to have two masters who have created french and japanese film adaptations. still, both versions seem incredibly under - viewed .
the final part of rivette’s epic tv documentary on renoir analyzes his working methods and his visual style in depth, focusing on the rules of the game. in addition to conversations between the filmmakers and their subject, “the rule and the exception” utilizes clips and a reunion between renoir and actor marcel dalio, who plays the central figure in renoir’s celebrated film .
michel bouquet as pierre - auguste renoir, and christa théret as his model .
renoir, jean, my life and my films, new york, 1974 .
faulkner, christopher, the social cinema of jean renoir, princeton, 1986 .
bergan, ronald, jean renoir: projections of paradise, woodstock, 1994 .
renoir issue
of cahiers du cinéma (paris), january 1952 .
directed by jean renoir. with pierre renoir, winna winfried, georges térof france 1932, 35mm, b / w, 75 min. french with english subtitles
directed by jean renoir. with valentine tessier, pierre renoir, alice tissot france 1934, 35mm, b / w, 101 min. french with english subtitles
directed by jean renoir. with pierre renoir, lise delamare, william aguet france 1938, 35mm, b / w, 131 min. french with english subtitles
a hidden gem with some captivating performances. i am hopefully to see more of many of the cast of this film .
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by the time renoir undertook sole directorship for the first time, he had fallen under the spell of von stroheim’s foolish wives (1922), and so whirlpool of fate, shot in the summer of 1924, exhibits much of that filmmaker’s fascination with the seedy and the corrupt. like the previous catherine, this film stars renoir’s wife catherine hessling as the title character, a young woman who innocently runs afoul of her provincial community—in this case, after she is orphaned by her father’s drowning. the film blends impressionism and naturalism; the naturalism is the effect of both von stroheim’s influence and the 19th - century realist french literature that renoir adored. the impressionist nature of the film stems from its setting—a barge on a river—and from the influence on renoir of such compatriots as gance and delluc. print courtesy the british film institute .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
la vie est à nous is unique in renoir’s oeuvre in that it is not a narrative film but a mixture of film essay, fiction and documentary meant to bring to the screen the political concerns and hopes of the working class as the french communist party conceived of them during the heyday of the popular front. the party commissioned renoir to make the film, and he enthusiastically accepted. the film is ingeniously constructed in episodes that alternate between documentary and narrative while also including humorous interludes and sections of direct address. the whole is meant to lay out a series of social contradictions and then to suggest solutions to them—a sort of vast montage. print courtesy tamasa films .
this film is a compilation of outtakes from screen tests for a day in the country. print courtesy les films du jeudi .
the movies were still in their infancy when this film takes place, four years before renoir’s death, at 78. as the art form matured, french cinema in particular inherited renoir’s fascination with the radiance and mutability of the flesh and the mysteries in the folds and textures of the female form .
renoir’s philosophy is distilled in five words: “flesh! that’s all that matters. ”
bazin, andré, jean renoir, edited by françois truffaut, paris, 1973 .
guislain, pierre, la règle du jeu, jean renoir, paris, 1990 .
cavagnac, guy, jean renoir: le désir du monde, paris, 1994 .
renoir issue
of cahiers du cinéma (paris), christmas, 1957 .
this week sees the criterion blu - ray release of jean renoir ‘s 1951 technicolor wonder “ the river. ” the film’s narrator recounts memories of her childhood in india, how “time passed, unnoticed. ” it’s a sentiment that pervades every great renoir film, and of the 40 or so he directed, none are bad, most are great, and more than a few are essential. as the son of french impressionist pierre - auguste, jean renoir’s life - long involvement with creativity was a foregone conclusion .
the first film from jean renoir in quite some time, long after not being that impressed with his so - called masterpiece, the rules of the game; the long - awaited follow - up being renoir' s film adaptation of maxim gorky' s best - known play, the lower depths... oddly enough, a french / russian co - production with the intent of showcasing the two countries new - found friendship .
directed by gilles bourdos, renoir is a period biopic set in the french riviera in 1915 and charting the relationship between the impressionist painter pierre - auguste renoir (michel bouquet), his film - maker son jean (vincent rottiers) and a model (christa theret) who becomes a muse for both men. the film played at the 2012 cannes film festival and became a moderate art - house hit in the us. but the reviews have been middling .
a syrupy drizzle of prettiness covers this cloying movie ,
wrote the guardian' s peter bradshaw .
the final part of rivette’s epic tv documentary on renoir analyzes his working methods and his visual style in depth, focusing on the rules of the game. in addition to conversations between the filmmakers and their subject, “the rule and the exception” utilizes clips and a reunion between renoir and actor marcel dalio, who plays the central figure in renoir’s celebrated film. dcp courtesy les films du jeudi .
directed by jean renoir. with catherine hessling, johnny hudgins, jean renoir france 1927, 35mm, b / w, silent, 25 min. french intertitles with english subtitles
in the film mr. bouquet is shown outdoors, a brush in renoir’s bandaged, arthritic hands, putting color to canvas; when the camera cuts to the painting, it is mr. ribes’s hand applying the paint .
beylie, claude, jean renoir: le spectacle, la vie, paris, 1975 .
director roman polanski and
blue is the warmest color
actress adele exarchopoulos are among the winners at france' s big film awards .
“flesh. that’s all that matters in life and in painting, ” declares the french impressionist pierre - auguste renoir in gilles bourdos’s lush, sun - dappled cinematic reverie, “renoir. ”
in past s & s polls of the greatest films of all time, jean renoir’s la grande illusion has lost out to his later, allegedly more personal film la règle du jeu. it’s time to reconsider, says ginette vincendeau .
this book is a labor of loving film scholarship consisting mostly of interviews with jean renoir (1894 - 1979) from the pages of the magazine cahiers du cinema and of tapes transcribed from the film maker' s appearances on french television between 1954 and 1967.'' renoir on renoir'' (knowledgeably translated by carol volk) reaffirms the exalted reputation of the french movie director among cineastes the world over. in all his interviews renoir projected the same down - to - earth, amiably bearlike personality he displayed in his few screen performances, most memorably in'' the human beast'' and'' the rules of the game.''
mcbride, joseph, editor, filmmakers on filmmaking: the american film institute seminars on motion pictures and television 2, los angeles, 1983 .
paris - - gilles bourdos ’ renoir has been chosen as france’s entry into the oscar race .
braudy, leo, jean renoir: the world of his films, new york, 1972 .
gilliatt, penelope, jean renoir: essays, conversations, reviews, new york, 1975 .
faulkner, christopher, jean renoir: a guide to references and resources, boston, 1979 .
renoir was eager to reteam with jean gabin, for the first time since la bête humaine seventeen years earlier, for this musical film rooted in the legendary montmartre of la belle époque, a neighborhood well - known to the director’s father and the other impressionists. set in a fictionalized moulin rouge—and made just two years after john huston’s film—the story focuses on the efforts of the club’s owner to reintroduce the cancan into parisian nightlife. this was renoir’s first film made in france since the 1939 debacle of the rules of the game, which hadn’t yet been rediscovered as a masterpiece. as the filmmaker put it, “ french cancan answered my great desire to make a film in a very french spirit and that would be…a nice bridge between me and french audiences. i felt that the public was very close to me, but i wanted to make sure. ” the film’s success proved that he had been right. print courtesy institut français .
directed by jean renoir. with marcel dalio, nora gregor, roland toutain, jean renoir france 1939, 35mm, b / w, 110 min. french, german & english with english subtitles
la règle du jeu (jean renoir, 1939). by keith reader. (ciné - file french film guides). london: i. b. tauris, 2010. x + 124 pp. , ill. pb £12. 99 .
“what must control the structure is not the line, ” renoir declares. “it’s the color. ”
viry - babel, roger, jean renoir: le jeu et la règle, paris, 1986 .
the southerner was the third of jean renoir' s american films (after swamp water and this land is mine), the first of his independent hollywood productions, and the object of controversy from the start. the debates that surrounded the film upon its release and continued long thereafter, disparate as they are in origin and intent, bear one upon the other in defining the film' s central critical issue .
jean renoir, a man of civilization, sensed that civilization was more important than nations, that there are shared cultures—“by interest, by profession, or by intellectual tendency” beyond national borders (19); and renoir remarked that the work leonardo da vinci did for the king of france shows the signs of a french aesthetic; and that he, renoir, thought that “we are going to return to this kind of international society” (19). renoir can imagine, in 1954, people being citizens of cinema, of film culture, an anticipation of transnational art house culture (renoir describes the specific possibility of small audiences in different countries for certain kinds of films) .
the first adaptation to the screen of one of georges simenon’s inspector maigret novels features maigret—played by renoir’s brother pierre—trying to solve a car theft, yet being drawn into more intrigue when he finds the car with a dead man behind the wheel. simenon and renoir were prior friends and collaborated closely on the screenplay. the dark, enigmatic film that resulted is so ambiguous at points that it has led to theories that parts of the script were never shot or even that footage has been lost. in fact, the overwhelming impression is the return of the kind of uncanny and erotic naturalism that permeated la chienne. godard himself described it as “renoir’s most mysterious film... the only great french detective movie—in fact, the greatest of all adventure movies. ” print courtesy the british film institute .
“i wish he’d been around when we were making our film, ” the director james ivory said of mr. ribes. “we were absolutely forbidden to use anything that picasso had created, including anything he wrote. i thought it was a sad thing. it would have, visually, been a different film. ”
“renoir” is the conceptual springboard for this year’s series, which honors the films of the great filmmaker jean renoir, the second of the painter’s three sons and the author of a 1962 biography of his father. three of the son’s masterworks are being shown: his first color film, “the river” (1951), in a restored print; a digital restoration of his satire “boudu saved from drowning” (1932); and “the rules of the game” (1939), a perennial contender on critics’ polls for the finest film ever made .
drama renoir, which closed the un certain regard sidebar section of cannes earlier this year, trumped the past, considered a front - runner for france’s entry. the past won oscar - nominee berenice bejo the best actress prize in the main competition at the film festival .
the first film on which renoir worked is a melodrama in which the title character is a servant in a provincial town who provokes a scandal by falling in love with her employer’s son. renoir conceived the film as a vehicle for his wife, whose screen name was catherine hessling. he acted as scenarist and producer, hiring the more experienced albert dieudonné to direct. however, he found it difficult simply to observe dieudonné, becoming more and more involved in the actual filmmaking. ultimately, the collaboration pleased neither party: dieudonné resented renoir’s claims to at least partial directorship, while renoir was dissatisfied with dieudonné’s editing of the final version. in any case, catherine contains some fine location shooting, which contributes greatly to an exciting chase sequence at the climax .
as with all artists, there was a bit of the con man in renoir, particularly when he rationalized the lapses and longueurs in his films as an acceptance of nature and reality. in this he shrewdly exploited his patrimony from his father, pierre auguste renoir, the famous impressionist painter. having once experienced jean renoir' s aura at a small parisian dinner party - the great artist posing as a humble artisan - i can easily understand how he has seduced so many film intellectuals .
. but note that the word independent is one of the many labels that indicates fifty different ways of making films in hollywood” (14). that independent film ,
still not having any success with the studios, renoir’s fourth hollywood film was an independent production that hearkened back to his love of french naturalist literature. renoir had long wanted to adapt octave mirbeau’s 1900 novel, which details the decadence of the upper classes as observed by their cynical servants. if the material seems close to the rules of the game, the filmmaker took an approach diametrically opposed to the realism of the earlier film. shooting everything—even exteriors—on soundstage sets, the result is another example of the director’s use of theatricality to give his material an uncanny edge. the use of the soundstage also allows renoir to indulge his love of the highly mobile camera .
in the details of its narrative, la grande illusion was also auto­biographical, based on renoir’s own memories of the war, in which he served as a pilot until he was shot down in april 1915 (gabin wears renoir’s old uniform in the film). to his own recollections he added those of his friend pinsard, another pilot. trouble flared when renoir and scriptwriter charles spaak failed to acknowledge that their screenplay also drew on jean des vallières’s novel kavalier scharnhorst, leading to a plagiarism case. while there are similarities between the book and the film, they remain relatively minor. more significant were spaak’s input and changes in the cast, especially the inclusion of von stroheim and the consequent expansion of von rauffenstein’s part (renoir greatly admired the austrian as a director) .
renoir, a tale of sunshine, oils and decorative nudity, has been selected as france' s official submission for next year' s best foreign film oscar. a french - language film took the top prize last year with michael haneke' s shattering death - bed drama amour (although it was in fact an entry for haneke' s native austria). this time around, the french tongue appears to be talking a different language .
renoir
doesn' t get much beneath the surface - but, good god, what a surface .
for those who just want to float away on waves of beauty ,
renoir
is a boating party .
gilson, paul ,
jean renoir à hollywood ,
ecran française (paris), 15 august 1945 .
this last fact, it seems to me, could be significant for the possible reception of this book. having taught renoir to recalcitrant students, i find a bothersome gap between the automatic reverence that is granted renoir and the widespread resistance to his oeuvre. from this it unfortunately may follow that only those readers who know renoir' s achievements backward and forward, warts and all, will fully appreciate the toughness, shrewdness, brilliance and beauty of the directorial sensibility unveiled, though hardly for the first time, in'' renoir on renoir.''
“you discover the content of a film as you’re shooting, ” says renoir (35), to rivette and truffaut, also stating his belief that artists continue to develop throughout their lives, and hope to draw from their experience, though too often “all that we’ve accumulated, all that we’ve tried to learn, comes too late or too early and not at the moment we need it” (40). he recalls wanting the golden coach to be a civilized film, one rich in detail; and he identified civilization in a classical period as being direct, fresh, simple, though the surface may seem unusually complex (40 and 41). (the golden coach is the film that james leahy, writing for senses of cinema, calls the best film about the theatre .) direct, fresh, simple, though the surface may seem unusually complex—might that not describe much of renoir’s work ?
he soft mediterranean light and the beautiful way in which the film is shot is certainly its strength. it is a pity that its tempo and story structure is not more engaging
deborah françois in “populaire, ” by régis roinsard. the film, which opens in new york in july, is part of the annual rendez - vous with french cinema .
best foreign film nominees include woody allen' s blue jasmine, quentin tarantino' s django unchained, alfonso cuaron' s gravity and paolo sorrentino' s the great beauty .
. (ciné - file french film guides). london: i. b. tauris, 2010. x + 124 pp. , ill. pb £12. 99 .
this consensus reflects both the film’s artistic success and its ability to express contradictory points of view – for instance, while national barriers are criticised as artificial, the film also indulges in national stereotypes. with the exception of germany, where it was banned as goebbels’s “cinematic enemy number 1”, la grande illusion was a triumph on the international scene too. it managed to please both fascist italy and franklin d. roosevelt, winning a raft of prizes including the ‘international jury cup’ at venice and the new york film critics’ circle award .
renoir’s disposition toward realism did not allow his filmmaking to fully blossom until the coming of sound. he sat out the transitional period of late 1929 and 1930, since no producer wanted to take a gamble on a sound film from such an unproven commodity. finally making his sound debut in 1931 with the scatological comedy on purge bébé, renoir immediately continued his adventurous streak by shooting live sound on set. but it was his second 1931 film that finally brought him positive critical attention: la chienne, a chilling return to his penchant for stroheimesque naturalism, with its emphasis on decadence and corruption. here renoir combines location shooting and location sound recording, deepening his ability to immerse audiences in realistically depicted space .
set in 1915 on the côte d’azur, where renoir (michel bouquet), crippled with arthritic pain, lived out his final years, the gorgeous film visualizes the world as observed by an enfeebled artist who is kept alive by his obsession with how the skin of a beautiful woman absorbs light .
this loose adaptation and updating of robert louis stevenson’s strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde was renoir’s first made - for - tv film. jean - louis barrault (children of paradise) delivers a chilly and enigmatic performance as dr. cordelier / opale in a film that was shot quickly, often using only single takes captured on multiple cameras. renoir himself termed it “an experimental film arising out of my work in theatre. ” a few years previously, renoir had directed his first play and became enamored with the process. he resolved to free the actor from the tyranny of “the exasperating director’s cry of ‘cut! ’” by filming with several cameras at a time and leaving it up to the performer as to when to stop the scene. the result was hailed by the cahiers crew (godard, truffaut and chabrol), but few others. print courtesy institut français .
renoir’s last silent film was his second for the société des films historiques (after the tournament), meant this time to commemorate the centennial of the colonization of algeria. the scenario is complacently colonialist: an innocent young frenchman arrives in algeria and must prove himself to his prosperous pied - noir uncle and to the woman he falls in love with. “since the simplicity of the scenario gave him a good deal of latitude, renoir took the opportunity to make an adventure film in the style of the american pictures he had enjoyed so much in his youth. le bled, following the healthy tradition of douglas fairbanks…starts out as comedy, comes to a climax of high adventure, and turns toward the sentimental at the end. ”—jacques rivette. dcp courtesy gaumont pathe film archives .
“one of the things we’ll put at the end is his work on the film, ” mr. péretié said, “and that he’ll probably work on other films in the future .
visually, this film is incredibly beautiful - appropriately, much like a painting in its landscapes and light, and the starring actress is stunning and almost like a living ...
there was a perceptible love of his subjects in painter pierre auguste renoir’s work, states the writer scott eyman (focus on film, autumn 1975), in “renoir at 80”; and it is the kind of love of humanity that many have seen in jean renoir’s work. reading eyman’s interview, it seems that different kinds of perfection were in contention in jean renoir’s film work: a personal idea of perfection versus an industry’s idea of perfection, one involved presenting the inner life and the other involved manipulation of exteriors. renoir talks about film reception, the expectation of artistic repetition and the assumption of standard styles, and his own concern for land, realism, lyricism, and contradiction—and resistance to certain kinds of revelation. “perhaps people see films to see how they would like to react, not how they actually do, ” he says (212); and “life is different from the movies, you know” (212). the themes of this interview and the ones that preceded it are important and interesting still, as is jean renoir’s work; and amid so much clarity, it is easy to wonder, was renoir complex or was he simple? was he a complex man who translated his complexity into simple terms, for the understanding of others? was he a complex man who articulated complexity in all its nuances so that they were perceptible to all? was he complex and simple ?
although many faux renoirs, 73 in all, appear in “renoir, ” the film did not face the copyright issues that have bedeviled other art - oriented movies, like “basquiat, ” when an estate won’t allow the use of the artist’s images and they have to be omitted, or recreated (in the case of jean - michel basquiat’s work, by the director, julian schnabel). to mr. bourdos, mr. ribes’s paintings give “renoir” a vitality it could never have achieved otherwise and helped avoid the problems faced by a production like “surviving picasso, ” the merchant - ivory film of 1996 .
joan bennett had starred in scarlet street, fritz lang’s hollywood remake of la chienne. that connection led to renoir’s directing this noirish tale of a love triangle between an older man, a traumatized ex - soldier and a femme fatale. renoir had wanted to make a film about a purely physical erotic connection, but studio interference invariably diluted this idea, and a disastrous preview screening led to extensive reshoots. nevertheless, jacques rivette regarded the film as a masterpiece: “if there is such a thing as pure cinema, it is to be found in the woman on the beach. ” print courtesy warner bros .
after a string of literary adaptations, renoir executed a radical change of pace by turning to a true crime story set in the southern french countryside, which he shot on location using mostly nonprofessional actors. toni follows the life of the titular italian migrant worker whose love for a fellow migrant leads him to try and convince her to escape and start life anew somewhere else. the film was startling enough to raise renoir’s profile with the french critics, with a truth that speaks to our own times: toni pulls no punches in its depiction of the difficulties and contradictions inherent within immigrant life. andre bazin felt that toni was “laying the foundation for what was to become neorealism ten years later. ” the proof: a young luchino visconti, working on his very first film set, was renoir’s assistant on the picture just eight years before he made ossessione, considered the first italian neorealist film. print courtesy institut français .
“renoir” is rated r (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for art - related nudity and brief language .
russell, lee ,
jean renoir ,
in new left review (new york), may - june 1964 .
renoir’s reputation rose and fell throughout the early 1930s when he had yet to garner much popular attention. his critical profile surged to new heights with toni, for which he combined location shooting and sound recording (in the south of france) with an episodic narrative taken from real life and a cast that included many non - professionals. the result was a true revelation in france and adds undeniable weight to the argument that renoir was the inventor of neorealism, particularly since luchino visconti was his assistant on this film and carried renoir’s working method to italy .
renoir’s last feature film, the elusive corporal bears a superficial resemblance to grand illusion: it is about french soldiers attempting to escape from a german prison camp, but this time the setting is world war ii. if grand illusion is about the death of the aristocracy, the elusive corporal is about a world without chivalry. although renoir decided that this was his saddest film, the episodic narrative mixes humor and drama, culminating in an ending not only leavened with moments of sacrifice and grace, but also some of the filmmaker’s joy in the dionysian chaos at the heart of human existence. print courtesy institut français .
jean renoir’s own work is both achievement and evidence. renoir recalls the birth of one of his great films, the river: renoir had read a review of rumer godden’s book the river, leading him to buy and read the book, which was about a young girl’s maturing and her observations of life and death, nature and society, and which he thought would be a good film subject; and he optioned the book from godden, an english writer and dance teacher who grew up in india and who agreed to help him write a script loosely based on the book. coincidentally, a woman relative of the indian leader nehru had recommended to a producer (kenneth mceldowney) that he use godden and her writing as the basis for a film: and learning that renoir held the option to the book the river, the two men worked together with godden .
renoir took a two - year break from filmmaking as talking pictures came to france while the 1920s became the 1930s. his first sound film is this little - seen comedy, about a domestic tempest in a bedpan: as the household of a chamber pot salesman expects a visit from an important vendor, the infant of the family becomes constipated and refuses to take his laxative. critics who considered this material unworthy of the great renoir did not count on the director’s taste for toilet humor. in any case, the film exhibits a bit of the difficulty renoir had in navigating the shift to sound. gone is the location shooting, and the camerawork is (temporarily) less mobile and fluid; occasionally the actors deliver their lines directly into the camera. on the other hand, temporary confinement to shooting on a sound stage seems to have nudged renoir toward his embrace of deep focus .
the year is 2028, and an african explorer heads north to barbaric europe, where he discovers a savage white woman living in the ruins of paris. renoir indulges his early love of special effects (reverse imagery, slow and fast motion) and the fantastic in this startling medium - length film that attempts to satirize the french modern - colonialist vogue for all things african by reversing the racial and sexual polarities of the binary logic that defines civilization by distinguishing it from the “primitive. ” print courtesy the british film institute .
although there is incident in the film' s second half — jean and andree soon pair up, pierre - auguste paints more masterpieces, jean discovers the movies, andree has additional flare - ups — it doesn' t build to the level of compelling drama, leaving the film in a quiet, temperate realm that scarcely makes the pulse race, the bodacious theret' s frequent nudity notwithstanding .
guillaume gallienne' s box - office hit me, myself and mum was the big winner of the evening, taking home five of the 10 prizes it was nominated for. the comedy - - adapted from his stage show - - won in the best film, best adapted screenplay, best editing and best first film, and gallienne took the best actor prize for his performance in multiple roles .
directed by jean renoir. with dana andrews, anne baxter, walter huston us 1941, 35mm, b / w, 86 min
directed by jean renoir. with paulette goddard, burgess meredith, francis lederer us 1946, 35mm, b / w, 86 min
directed by jean renoir. with charles laughton, maureen o’hara, george sanders us 1943, 35mm, b / w, 103 min
directed by jean renoir. with joan bennett, robert ryan, charles bickford us 1947, 35mm, b / w, 71 min
directed by jean renoir. with zachary scott, betty field, beulah bondi us 1945, 35mm, b / w, 92 min
the strange and extraordinary picnic on the grass is a janus - like creation, with one face turned to the future and one looking to the past. the film imagines a world where television is omnipresent, nuclear power is a subject for debate, the european countries have entered into a federation, and a technocratic elite promotes artificial insemination to better the human race. the rise of a politician who espouses this platform is thrown into turmoil by the event of the film’s title. thus, here renoir returns to the theme of a day in the country, that of the seductive and anarchic power of nature to reshape lives. further, picnic on the grass was shot in the south of france in the places where renoir’s father lived late in life and where catherine was filmed. indeed, the film’s mix of charming playfulness and sci - fi dystopia hearkens back to charleston parade .
chotard et cie may be the slightest in the trilogy of obscure - but - worthy early renoir comedies that includes tire au flanc and on purge bébé, but it belongs in their company as proof that renoir could direct not just naturalist drama and social satire but also flat - out farce. when a wealthy greengrocer gets an author for a son - in - law, he is perturbed—until the young man wins the prix goncourt. plans to monetize the young man’s talent come to naught, leading the film to the moral that each must fulfill his or her own destiny. proof that renoir never missed a chance to try new things, the film opens with a bravura feat: a complicated tracking shot, over two minutes long, moving from close - up to deep focus and from the street into chotard’s shop .
a film long considered unfinished turns out to be one of renoir’s most profound and moving. in the midst of his commitment to the popular front, renoir changed direction to undertake an adaptation of de maupassant’s story “the day in the country, ” about a picnic outing by some parisian shopkeepers that results in idle flirtation for some and the fleeting discovery of true passion for others. an epilogue reveals, both serenely and tragically, the passing of time. when filming was interrupted by the weather, renoir abandoned the project to begin work on the lower depths, not returning to it until several years later. the missing section of the screenplay goes unmissed, because what remains is some of renoir’s most engaging and powerful filmmaking. print courtesy institut français .
( michel bouquet) and his film - maker son jean renoir (vincent rottiers). the dramatic link between them is andrée (christa théret), a beautiful young woman who in 1915 was the elder renoir' s model, and then became jean' s lover: she was to be his collaborator in the emerging art of the cinema, an interesting part of her life that this film does not cover. sadly, the arts of painting and film are evoked with equal lack of insight or passion; the relationship between father and son is uninspired, as is their relationship with andrée, who does a lot of pseudo - sensual lounging about in sun - dappled softcore nudity. bouquet is always a formidable presence on screen and he does what he can with the role, but it is conceived with such solemnity and dullness. this gives a new meaning to truffaut' s phrase
that sense of fluidity is embodied in the canvases shown in the film (painted by the famous art forger guy ribes), whose figures dissolve into the landscape and into one another in an ethereal mist .
several ideas seemed to have stayed with jean renoir throughout his life and career: actors are a vital part of the filmmaking process, which is a process of discovery; the early days in any art form are often the best; technology can cripple the senses, and perfection of technique can be stifling; jazz and film are the most important art forms of the twentieth century; the best film directors are wise about life, and are authors, creators of worlds, and for renoir they are collaborative authors; great work reveals aspects of reality; human beings are inconsistent in behavior; what is commercial is what is safe, but complete freedom usually does not yield significant artistry, as prohibitions can help to focus mind and spirit; originality may be important but personal interpretation, even of received ideas and stories, is no less important; the audience completes the film, which itself can refer to almost anything; and film is a mass art as a result of its availability, how it circulates in society, whose members are shaped by their hope and their need, their time and their place .
“too early, too late, ” renoir comments wryly, meaning that their age difference prevents them from becoming lovers. for renoir, andrée, who has a ravenous appetite for life, is the spirit made flesh, a beauty “titian would have worshiped, ” he announces .
however, with his prospects for work in los angeles dwindling, renoir entered a brief period of working on international co - productions that would include his first two films in color: the river, shot in english, in india; and the golden coach, adapted from french sources and shot shot in italy with an international cast speaking english. the former was enough of a success to revive renoir’s international reputation. the latter, now celebrated as one of renoir’s masterworks, was a huge critical and financial disappointment, and occasioned renoir’s return to france .
abstract or not, renoir' s films have inspired a vast body of critical literature that remains virtually unknown to nonreaders of film studies. francois truffaut, who compiled andre bazin' s book on renoir scrap by scrap from bazin' s articles, declared flatly in his introduction:'' andre bazin and jean renoir have meant too much to me for me to be able to speak of them dispassionately. thus it is quite natural that i should feel that' jean renoir' by andre bazin is the best book on the cinema, written by the best critic, about the best director.'' would - be revisionists have had more than 30 years to repudiate or even qualify the insights of bazin, who died in 1958. none really has .
the latter issue gave rise to a long series of debates that still continue today, centred on whether or not the film’s recourse to anti - semitic stereotypes (rosenthal as rich banker) and directly anti - semitic remarks (maréchal to rosenthal: “i could never abide jews”) were meant as a critique of anti - semitism. the other questions, however, quickly receded into the background. on the one hand, the heated political divisions that informed film criticism in france gave way to other agendas; on the other, the reconstruction of europe soon made the film’s pacifism and advocacy of rapprochement between nations seem relevant once again .
of course, the very name renoir gives any publishing endeavor the gloss of genetic genius. consider that bazin' s study was entitled simply'' jean renoir,'' as were the best books in english on the film maker, by raymond durgnat and leo braudy. one might say that the son of the impressionist immortal was born with an unfair advantage over the less nobly born film makers of his artistic rank. after all, who remembers the fathers of d. w. griffith, f. w. murnau, ernst lubitsch, carl dreyer, luis bunuel, alfred hitchcock, john ford, ingmar bergman, leo mccarey, howard hawks, frank capra, robert bresson inter alios ?
set in the backwaters of the deep south, renoir’s first american film tells the story of a young man who—while trying to find his dog that has run off into the swamp—is kidnapped by an escaped fugitive. in true renoirian fashion, the young man becomes allies with his captor after listening to a story of injustice, and the two embark on a mission to set the wrongs right. after beginning his career with self - funded or independent productions and then rising to star status in his native france, renoir arrived in los angeles ill - prepared for the strictures of the studio system. he did convince fox studio head darryl zanuck, who had been mightily impressed by grand illusion, to let him do a bit of location shooting in the okefenokee swamp. the bigger problem was renoir’s working method while shooting, which seemed slow and aimless to fox’s executives. in the end, the film was a success, and renoir and zanuck parted ways amicably. print courtesy 20th century fox .
renoir took prosper mérimée’s play about a commedia dell’arte troupe in 18th - century peru and used it as an entry point for his greatest investigation of theater and performance. shot at cinecitta in technicolor by claude renoir, starring the great anna magnani and featuring a beautiful score culled from the works of vivaldi, the golden coach opens on a shot of a curtain rising to reveal a stage. as the camera moves slowly in, we are spectators in a theater hovering in front of the proscenium, but then a door opens on the stage and the camera follows a character through it and we enter the play, or, more accurately, the movie. renoir considered vivaldi one of his principal collaborators on the film, one whose music contributes to the film’s spirit of light - hearted irony, as the director put it. print courtesy janus films .
“renoir, ” which opens in new york and los angeles on friday, is a highbrow domestic drama, set in 1915. it focuses on pierre - auguste renoir (michel bouquet), the giant of impressionism; his son jean, the future giant of cinema; and the woman who would become the father’s last model and the son’s first wife. writing in the new york times, the critic stephen holden described it as a “gorgeous film” that “visualizes the world as observed by an enfeebled artist who is kept alive by his obsession with how the skin of a beautiful woman absorbs light. ” in doing so mr. bourdos’s film tackles one of the more slippery subjects in cinema, the making of art .
director gilles bourdos takes an appreciative look at andree heuschling' s impact on the lives of painter pierre - auguste renoir and his son jean .
jean renoir’s pacifist classic is set in a german prisoner - of - war camp during wwi, where class kinship is felt across national boundaries .
“i think that the only secret—which is very convenient in our profession, as in others, and which helps a great deal—is to try to see and to fill yourself with good things. if you’re a playwright, better to read shakespeare and moliere than to read…an inferior writer. in film, it’s the same thing, and i was very lucky to start loving films and to want to make them at a time when they were really good. ” —jean renoir, “interview with jean renoir” (1954 )
renoir is a 2012 french drama film based on the last years of pierre-auguste renoir at cagnes-sur-mer during world war i . the film was directed by gilles bourdos and competed in the un certain regard section at the 2012 cannes film festival . the film is set in the south of france during world war i and stars michel bouquet , christa theret , thomas doret and vincent rottiers . renoir achieved critical and commercial success both in france and abroad , most notably in the united states where it is on the critic 's pick list of the new york times the film was selected as the french entry for the best foreign language film at the 86th academy awards , but was not nominated . in january 2014 , the film received four nominations at the 39th césar awards , winning for best costume design . 
renoir is a 2012 french drama film based on the last years of pierre-auguste renoir at cagnes-sur-mer during world war i. the film was directed by gilles bourdos and competed in the un certain regard section at the 2012 cannes film festival. the film is set in the south of france during world war i and stars michel bouquet, christa theret, thomas doret and vincent rottiers. renoir achieved critical and commercial success both in france and abroad, most notably in the united states where it is on the critic's pick list of the new york times the film was selected as the french entry for the best foreign language film at the 86th academy awards, but was not nominated. in january 2014, the film received four nominations at the 39th césar awards, winning for best costume design.
renoir is a 2012 french drama film based on the last years of pierre-auguste renoir at cagnes-sur-mer during world war i. the film was directed by gilles bourdos and competed in the un certain regard section at the 2012 cannes film festival. the film is set in the south of france during world war i and stars michel bouquet, christa theret, thomas doret and vincent rottiers. renoir achieved critical and commercial success both in france and abroad, most notably in the united states where it is on the critic's pick list of the new york times the film was selected as the french entry for the best foreign language film at the 86th academy awards, but was not nominated. in january 2014, the film received four nominations at the 39th césar awards, winning for best costume design.