Happy Birthday, Jean Renoir! Born today in 1894, this French author, actor, screenwriter, producer and film director has made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. Two of his films are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made.
Renoir was the son of the renowned French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur. Pierre-Auguste was fifty-three years old when Jean was born.
Jean had extremely long hair as a small child which was not cut at the insistence of his father. His hair made him look like a little girl and caused him to be teased mercilessly.
Jean, then with his long hair, was depicted famously in one of his father's paintings. Jean was greatly relieved to go away for school because he knew they required boys to have short hair and they would cut his.
Renoir's elder brother was French stage and film actor Pierre Renoir. Jean's nephew, French cinematographer Claude Renoir had a brief minor career in the film industry, mostly assisting on a few of his uncle's films.
Renoir was also the uncle of Claude Renoir, the son of Pierre. This was the same cinematographer who had worked with Jean on several of his films.
After making his mark in the early 1930s with two very different films, Renoir closed out the decade with two humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made.
During this time, Renoir wrote and directed the first film of which he is best known. It was Renoir's second film as director and also the twelfth film of his career. This was the 1931 French black and white drama film 'La Chienne'.
The literal English translation of the film's title is 'The Bitch', although the feature was never released under this title. It is often referred to in English as 'Isn't Life a Bitch?'
Miserably married to cantankerous widow Adèle (Magdeleine Bérubet), meek cashier Maurice Legrand's (Michel Simon) passion is painting.
When he falls in love with the attractive Lucienne “Lulu” Pelletier (Janie Marèse), Maurice doesn't suspect that she'll take advantage of his gullibility and bring about a disaster.
The films was based on Georegs de La Fouchardière's titular novel. It was also based on French dramatist, author of comedies, librettist, screenwriter and dialoguist André Moouëzy-Éon'S titular 1930 play.
The following year, Renoir wrote and directed the second film of which he is best known. This was the 1932 French black and white social satire comedy of manners film ‘Boudu sauvé des eaux’ (‘Boudu Saved from Drowning’ or ‘Boudu Saved from the Waters’).
It tells of Priape Boudu (Michel Simon), a Parisian street tramp who decides to end his destitute life by plunging into the Seine.
Hidebound middle-class bookshop owner Edouard Lestingois (Charles Granval) saves the tramp's life and brings him home for dinner.
Touched by his story, Edouard and his wife, Emma (Marcelle Hainia), allows Boudu to live in their house so they can reform him into a model bourgeois citizen. However, unexpected events unravel their well-intentioned plans.
Renoir wrote the screenplay for ‘Boudu’ from French dramatist, librettist and actor René Fauchois’ titular 1919 play. French screenwriter and director Jacques Becker ('Le Trou') served as assistant director.
American film critic Pauline Kael called ‘Boudu’, "not only a lovely fable about a bourgeois attempt to reform an early hippy... but a photographic record of an earlier France.”
Five years later, Renoir co-wrote and directed the third film of which he is best known. This was the 1937 French black and white war/crime film 'Le Grande Illusion' ('The Grand Illusion'). Becker again served as assistant director.
The film tells of a group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin).
after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp, both men grapple with their own class differences.
When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
The title of the film comes from British lecturer, journalist, and author Norman Angell’s titular 1909 book (originally titled Europe's Optical Illusion) which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations.
The perspective of the film is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities.
‘The Grand Illusion’ is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema and among the greatest films ever made.
Three years later, Renoir co-wrote and directed the fourth film of which he is best known. This was the 1939 French black and white satirical comedy-drama romance film 'Le Règle du Jeu' ('The Rules of the Game').
In this melancholy French social satire, André Jurieux Roland Toutain) is having an affair with Christine de la Cheyniest (Nora Gregor), whose husband, Marquis Robert de la Cheyniest (Marcel Dalio), himself is hiding a mistress.
Meanwhile Christine's married maid, Lisette (Paulette Dubost), is romantically entangled with the local poacher.
At a hunting party, trusted friend Octave (Renoir) also confesses his feelings for Christine, as the passions of the servants and aristocrats dangerously collide.
It is Renoir's portrayal of the wise, mournful Octave that anchors the fatalistic mood of this pensive comedy of manners.
At the time, ‘The Rules of the Game’ was the most expensive French film made: Its original budget of 2.5 million francs eventually increased to more than five million francs.
Renoir and French cinematographer Jean Bachelet made extensive use of deep-focus and long shots during which the camera is constantly moving, sophisticated cinematic techniques in 1939.
Today, ‘The Rules of the Game’ has been called one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. Numerous film critics and directors have praised it highly, citing it as an inspiration for their own work.
'The Rules of the Game’ is the only film to earn a place among the top films in the respected Sight & Sound magazine’s decennial critics' poll for every decade since the poll's inception in 1952.
‘The Rules of the Game’ had been co-produced by Renoir's nephew Claude. It had also been co-written by German film director and writer Carl Koch, who had many secondary credits including collaborations with his wife.
This was German film director and pioneer of silhouette animation Lotte Reiniger (‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’).
In the mid-1940s, Fritz Lang remade 'La Chienne' in the United States. This was the 1945 American black and white noir/drama tragedy film ‘Scarlet Street’. It starred Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson.
One year later, Renoir wrote and directed the fifth film of which he is best known. This was the 1946 French black and white comedy/romance film 'Partie de campagne' ('A Day in the Country').
This bittersweet featurettewas was based on 19th-century French author Guy de Maupassant's 1881 fictional short story Une Partie du Campagnene. Maupassant was a friend of Renoir's father.
The film tells of Parisian merchant Monsieur Dufour (Andre Gabriello), who takes his extended family out to the countryside for some rest and relaxation.
On their outing, the Dufour party meets two locals at an inn, and the young men offer to take the women boating while the father and his future son-in-law (Paul Temps) go fishing.
But, before long, engaged Henriette Dufour (Sylvia Bataille) falls for her guide, Henri (Georges D'Arnoux), and a new romance begins. The film was shot by Claude, while Renoir appears as Uncle Poulain. Becker served as first assistant director.
With a runtime of only forty minutes, ‘A Day in the Country’ chronicles a love affair over a single summer afternoon in 1860 along the banks of the Seine.
Unfortunately, Renoir never finished filming due to weather problems, however, French producer, executive producer, and actor Pierre Braunberger turned the material into a release in 1946, ten years after it was shot.
In 1950, Polish-American film distributor Joseph Burstyn released the film in the United States.
Two years later, Renoir co-wrote and directed the sixth and final film of which he is best known. This was the 1952 French/Italian Technicolor drama/historical drama film 'Le Carrosse d'or' ('The Golden Coach').
The film follows Camilla (Anna Magnani), a commedia dell'arte performer whose troupe are touring Peru.
However, her beauty sees her being courted by diplomat Duncan Lamont (Ferdinand, le Viceroy) and toreador Ramon (Riccardo Rioli), among others.
But as the threat of war looms, Camilla soon finds out that she must make painful decisions about her future.
The film was based on French writer in the movement of the Romanticism Prosper Mérimée's 1829 play Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement (The Coach of the Blessed Sacrament).
François Truffaut reportedly referred to ‘The Golden Coach’ as "the noblest and most refined film ever made". He later adapted the name for his film company.
Renoir voted the 12th-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly magazine, making him the highest-rated French filmmaker on the list.
Renoir was also called "the boss" by French film director and film critic Jacques Rivette ('Celine and Julie Go Boating', 'La Belle Noiseuse').
Renoir once said that no other Hollywood director understood people better than American film director, screenwriter, and producer Low McCarey ('Duck Soup', 'Make Way for Tomorrow', 'The Awful Truth', 'An Affair to Remember').
American film producer and studio executive Daryl F. Zanuck, Renoir's sometimes producer during Renoir's mixed period making films in Hollywood, said "Renoir has plenty of talent, but he's not one of us.".
Renoir wrote and published his 1974 autobiographical film criticism book Mein Leben und meine Filme (My Life and My Films).
He was frequently approached about turning his best-selling 1966 fiction novel, Les Cahiers du Capitaine Georges (The Notebooks of Captain Georges) into a film, but he always refused; nor did he want anyone else to film it.
Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his contribution to the motion picture industry. This occurred at the 47th Academy Awards in early April 1975.
Three years later, Renoir passed from a heart attack.in Beverly Hills, California on February 12, 1979. He was 84.
Although he became an American citizen, Renoir was buried in France following a state funeral. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6212 Hollywood Blvd.
Charlie Chaplin named Renoir as "the greatest film director in the world".
Orson Welles named ‘La Grande Illusion’ as one of the two movies he would take with him "on the ark.” He later wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Jean Renoir: The Greatest of all Directors" on February 18, 1979.
The trademarks in Renoir's films often dealt with the alienation brought by upper-class lifestyle. They were also almost always reflected his left-wing political views.
His classic films, both in silent and later eras, were noted for their poetic realism and strong narrative.
In 2002, Renoir was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics as the fourth greatest director of all time.
In 2010, Empire magazine ranked 'The Grand Illusion' #35 in "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema".
Renoir's films have also influenced many other directors. These include Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, François Truffaut, Satyajit Ray, Éric Rohmer, Luchino Visconti, Errol Morris, Mike Leigh, and Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet.
Renoir's films often dealt with the alienation brought by upper-class lifestyle. They also almost always reflected his left-wing political views.
After making his mark in the early 1930s, with two very different films, this French master closed out the decade with two humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made.
Nicknamed Le patron, Renoir had been active from 1924–1978.
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