Jean Renoir

Photo of Jean Renoir

Born:

September 15, 1894

Died:

February 12, 19791

The Western is always the same, which gives the director tremendous freedom

Biography:

The second son of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir grew up in the artistic milieu of turn-of-the-century Paris. After World War I, in which he was wounded2, his film career started when he scripted Catherine (1924). A year later Renoir directed his first film, La fille de l'eau because he wanted to make a star of his wife Catherine Hessling (a former model of his father).

The coming of sound raised him on a higher level commercially, On purge Bébé (1931) and artistically, La Chienne (1931).

Les bas-fonds started Renoir's cooperation with Jean Gabin3, followed by La grande illusion (1937) La bête humaine (1938) and French Cancan (1954)

In the late thirties he reached his peaks with La Grande Illusion (1937), a study of three French POWs, Jean's first international success and La regle du jeu (1939).

He left France in 1941 during the German invasion and became a naturalized US citizen. In Hollywood, Renoir made six American films with limited success. He made an anti-Nazi propaganda film, This land is mine (1943), and two years later The Souterner, generally acknowledged his best American film.

He turned to writing, to the theatre and to television.

In 1962, Renoir published a loving memoir of his father, Renoir, My Father, in which he described the profound influence his father had on him and his work. Jean was awarded the French légion d'honneur in 1977.

  1. La grande illusion (1937)
  2. La règle du jeu (1939)
  3. Une partie de campagne (1946)
  4. La chienne (1931)
  5. La bête humaine (1938)
  6. The river (1951)
  7. Le crime de monsieur Lange (1936)
  8. Boudu sauvé des eaux (1932)
  9. Bas-fonds (1936)
  10. This land is mine (1943)

  • Une vie sans joie (1924)
  • La fille de l'eau (1925)
  • Nana (1926)
  • Sur un air de Charleston (1927)
  • Marquitta (1927)
  • La petite marchande d'allumettes (1928)
  • Tire au flanc (1928)
  • Le tournoi dans la cité (1929)
  • Le bled (1929)
  • On purge bébé (1931)
  • La chienne (1931)
  • La Nuit du carrefour (1932)
  • Boudu sauvé des eaux (1932)
  • Madame Bovary (1933)
  • Toni (1935)
  • Le crime de monsieur Lange (1936)
  • Bas-fonds (1936)
  • La grande illusion (1937)
  • La Marseillaise (1938)
  • La bête humaine (1938)
  • La règle du jeu (1939)
  • Swamp water (1941)
  • This land is mine (1943)
  • The Southerner (1945)
  • The diary of a chambermaid (1946)
  • Une partie de campagne (1946)
  • The woman on the beach (1947)
  • The river (1951)
  • Le carrosse d'or (1953)
  • French Cancan (1955)
  • Elena et les hommes (1956)
  • Le testament du docteur cordelier (1959)
  • Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (1959)
  • Le caporal épinglé (1962)

Academy awards:

1946 - Nominated best Director for: The Southerner (1945)
1975 - Honorary Academy Award

Bibliography » Books:

Bibliography » Web:

-
Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay -