Film director, born in Paris, France, the son of Pierre Auguste Renoir. After serving in World War 1 (where he won the Croix de Guerre), he studied ceramics, then began writing screenplays, and turned to silent film-making. His version of Zola's Nana (1926), La Grande Illusion (1937, The Great Illusion), La Règle du Jeu (1939, The Rules of the Game), The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), and Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1959, Lunch on the Grass) are among the masterpieces of the cinema. He left France in 1941 during the German invasion, and became a US citizen. His last films were Le Caporal épinglé (1962, The Vanishing Corporal) and Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir (1969, The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir). He received an honorary Academy Award in 1975.
Jean Renoir (French IPA: [ʀə'nwaʀ]) (September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979), born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France, was a film director, actor and author. As a film director and actor he made over forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. It was Stroheim's films, Renoir later wrote, that made him realize that the creation of a film is the creation of the world within that film, and that good films could be made in France depicting French subjects in French surroundings, something he had previously not thought possible.
In 1924, Renoir directed the first of his nine silent films, most of which starred his first wife, who was also his father's last model, Catherine Hessling.
A classic sequence of films
During the 1930s Renoir enjoyed great success as a filmmaker. In 1931 Renoir directed his first sound film La Chienne (Isn't Life a Bitch?), and the following year Boudu Saved from Drowning (originally Boudu sauvé des eaux) was strongly influenced by Chaplin's tramp. A pacifist film about a series of escape attempts by French POWs during World War I, the film was enormously successful but was also banned in Germany, and later in Italy by Mussolini after having won the "Best Artistic Ensemble" award at the Venice Film Festival. This was followed by another cinematic success: La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast), a film noir tragedy based on the novel by Emile Zola
In 1939, now able to finance his own films, Renoir made what is regarded widely as his greatest film, as well as one of the greatest ever made, La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game), a satire on contemporary French society with an ensemble cast. The Vichy government later banned the film as demoralizing and during the war the original negative of the film was lost. It was not until the 1950s that two French film enthusiasts, with Renoir's cooperation, were able to reconstruct a complete print of the film.
Exile in Hollywood
When World War II came, the 45-year-old Renoir was drafted into the Film Service of the French army. His last two films were poorly received and were the last films Renoir made in America.
A transatlantic life
In 1949 Renoir traveled to India and made The River, his first color film.
After returning to work in Europe, Renoir made a trilogy of technicolor musical comedies on the subjects of theater, politics and commerce, Le Carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach) (1953) French CanCan (1954) and Eléna et les hommes (Elena and Her Men) (1956), which starred Ingrid Bergman in her first film since leaving Roberto Rossellini.
Renoir's next films were made in 1959 using techniques Renoir admired and adapted from live television at the time. The former was filmed on the grounds of Auguste Renoir's home and the latter film was made in the streets of Paris and its suburbs.
In 1962 Renoir made what was to be his penultimate film, Le Caporal épinglé (The Elusive Corporal) .Set among French POW's during their massive internment in labor camps by the Nazis during World War II, the film explores the twin human needs for freedom, on the one hand, and emotional and economic security, on the other. As funds for his film projects were becoming harder to obtain, Renoir continued to write screenplays and then wrote a novel, The Notebooks of Captain Georges, published in 1966.
Last years
Renoir made his last film in 1969, Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir (The Little Theater of Jean Renoir). In sympathy with the student demonstrations at the time, Renoir's original title for the film was It's a Revolution! The film is a series of four short films made in a variety of styles with one unifying theme.
Thereafter, unable to find financing for his films and in declining health, Renoir spent the last years of his life receiving friends at his home in Beverly Hills and writing novels and his memoirs.
Filmography
(copied from French Wikipedia)
1924 : Backbiters (Catherine ou Une vie sans Joie, also acted) 1925 : Whirlpool of Fate (La Fille de l'eau) 1926 : Nana 1927 : Charleston Parade (Sur un air de charleston) 1927 : Une vie sans joie (second version of Backbiters) 1927 : Marquitta 1928 : The Sad Sack (Tire-au-flanc) 1928 : The Tournament (Le Tournoi dans la cité) 1928 : The Little Match Girl (La Petite Marchande d'allumettes) 1929 : Le Bled 1931 : On purge bébé 1931 : Isn't Life a Bitch? (La Chienne) 1932 : Night at the Crossroads (La Nuit du carrefour) 1932 : Boudu Saved From Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux) 1932 : Chotard and Company (Chotard et Cie) 1933 : Madame Bovary 1935 : Toni 1936 : A Day in the Country (Une partie de campagne, also acted) 1936 : The People of France (La vie est à nous, also acted) 1936 : The Lower Depths (Les Bas-fonds) 1936 : The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Le Crime de Monsieur Lange) 1937 : The Grand Illusion (La Grande illusion) 1938 : The Marseillaise (La Marseillaise) 1938 : The Human Beast (La Bête humaine, also acted) 1939 : The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu, also acted) 1941 : Swamp Water (L'Étang tragique) 1943 : This Land Is Mine (Vivre libre) 1945 : The Southerner (L'Homme du sud) 1946 : The Diary of a Chambermaid (Le Journal d'une femme de chambre) 1946 : Salute to France (Salut à la France) 1947 : The Woman on the Beach (La Femme sur la plage) 1951 : The River (Le Fleuve) 1953 : The Golden Coach (Le Carrosse d'or) 1955 : French Cancan 1956 : Elena and Her Men (Elena et les hommes) 1959 : The Testament of Doctor Cordelier (Le Testament du docteur Cordelier) 1959 : Picnic on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe) 1962 : The Elusive Corporal (Le Caporal épinglé) 1971 : The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (Le Petit Théâtre de Jean Renoir, TV movie in four parts)
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