Editing Jean Renoir

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Short description|French film director and screenwriter (1894–1979)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jean Renoir
| image              = Jean Renoir (1959).tif
| imagesize          = 
| caption            = Renoir in 1959
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1894|9|15|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Paris, France]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1979|2|12|1894|9|15|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Beverly Hills, California]], U.S.
| occupation         = Film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, author
| years_active       = 1924–1978
| notable_works      = ''[[La Grande Illusion]]'', ''[[La règle du jeu]]'', ''[[The Southerner (film)|The Southerner]]'', ''[[The River (1951 film)|The River]]'', ''[[The Golden Coach]]'', ''[[French Cancan]]''
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Catherine Hessling]]|1920|1943|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Dido Freire|1944}}
}}
| partner            = [[Marguerite Renoir]] (1932–1939)
| relatives          = {{plainlist|
*[[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]] (father)
*[[Alain Renoir]] (Son)
*[[Pierre Renoir]] (brother)
*[[Claude Renoir]] (nephew)
*[[Sophie Renoir]] (grand-niece)}}
}}
'''Jean Renoir''' ({{IPA|fr|ʁənwaʁ|lang}}; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His ''[[La Grande Illusion]]'' (1937) and ''[[The Rules of the Game]]'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the [[List of films considered the best| greatest films ever made]].<ref name="Frierson 2017 p. 315">{{Cite book |last=Frierson |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inlTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT315 |title=Film and Video Editing Theory: How Editing Creates Meaning |date=28 March 2018 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-315-47499-1 |pages=315 |oclc=1030518417}}</ref> In 2002, he was ranked fourth on the [[British Film Institute|BFI]]'s ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' poll of the greatest directors. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] in 1975. Renoir was the son of the painter [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]] and the uncle of the cinematographer [[Claude Renoir]]. With Claude, he made ''[[The River (1951 film)|The River]]'' (1951), the first color film shot in [[India]]. A lifelong lover of theater, Renoir turned to the stage for ''[[The Golden Coach]]'' (1952) and ''[[French Cancan]]'' (1955). He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an ''[[auteur]]''; the critic [[Penelope Gilliatt]] said a Renoir shot could be identified "in a thousand miles of film."<ref name="OShaughnessy 2000 p. 14">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYPXXf-qsyYC&pg=PA14 |title=Jean Renoir |last1=O'Shaughnessy |first1=Martin |last2=O'Shaughnessy |first2=Professor of Film Studies Martin |date=20 October 2000 |publisher=Manchester University Press  |isbn=9780719050633 |location=Manchester |pages=14 |oclc=606344172}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-15-ca-15822-story.html |title=The Auteur Who Coined the Word : Commentary: A Jean Renoir expert says UCLA's retrospective attempts to answer age-old questions about art. |last=Braudy |first=Leo |date=15 July 1994 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=28 September 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newwavefilm.com/about/a-certain-tendency-of-french-cinema-truffaut.shtml |title=A Certain Tendency of French Cinema (Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français) |last=François |first=Truffaut |date=1954 |website= newwavefilm.com |access-date=28 September 2019}}</ref><ref name="NYTObit"/>

[[Pauline Kael]] wrote that "At his greatest, Jean Renoir expresses the beauty in our common humanity—the desires and hopes, the absurdities and follies, that we all, to one degree or another, share."<ref>{{cite book| last=Kael| first=Pauline| title=The Age of Movies| page=40}}</ref> Per ''[[The New York Times]]'': "The style that ran through Mr. Renoir's films — a mixture of tenderness, irony and Gallic insouciance‐was caught in a famous line from his 1939 masterpiece, ''The Rules of the Game.'' It was spoken by Octave, played by the director himself: 'You see, in this world, there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.'”<ref name="NYTObit">{{cite news| title=Jean Renoir, Director of 'Grand Illusion' Film, Dies| last=Montgomery| first=Paul| date=February 14, 1979| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/14/archives/jean-renoir-director-of-grand-illusion-film-dies-outlook-like.html}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Gabrielle et Jean, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, from C2RMF cropped.jpg|right|thumb|The young Renoir with [[Gabrielle Renard]] in a painting by his father [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]] (1895–96)]]

Renoir was born in the [[Montmartre]] district of [[Paris]], [[France]]. He was the second son of [[Aline Charigot|Aline (née Charigot) Renoir]] and [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], the  [[Impressionist]] painter. His elder brother was [[Pierre Renoir]], a French stage and film actor, and his younger brother Claude Renoir (1901–1969) had a brief career in the film industry, mostly assisting on a few of Jean's films.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} Jean Renoir was also the uncle of [[Claude Renoir]] (1913–1993), the son of Pierre, a [[cinematography|cinematographer]] who worked with Jean Renoir on several of his films. He recalls that "I discovered [[Alexandre Dumas]] when I was about ten. I am still discovering him."<ref>{{cite book| author=Jean Renoir| title=My Life and My Films| page=33}}</ref>

Renoir was largely raised by [[Gabrielle Renard]], his nanny and his mother's cousin, with whom he developed a strong bond. Shortly before his birth, she had come to live with the Renoir family.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', p. 16</ref> She introduced the young boy to the [[Guignol]] puppet shows in Montmartre, which influenced his later film career. He wrote in his 1974 memoirs ''My Life and My Films'', "She taught me to see the face behind the mask and the fraud behind the flourishes. She taught me to detest the cliché."<ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 29, 282</ref> Gabrielle was also fascinated by the new [[History of film|early motion pictures]], and when Renoir was only a few years old she took him to see his first film.

As a child, Renoir moved to the south of France with his family. He and the rest of the Renoir family were the subjects of many of his father's paintings. His father's financial success ensured that the young Renoir was educated at fashionable [[boarding school]]s, from which, as he later wrote, he frequently ran away.<ref>Renoir, Jean. ''Renoir My Father'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962, pp. 417–419; 425–429</ref>

At the outbreak of [[World War I]], Renoir was serving in the French cavalry. Later, after receiving a bullet in his leg, he served as a [[reconnaissance]] pilot.<ref>Durgnat, Raymond. ''Jean Renoir'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974, pp. 27–28</ref> His leg injury left him with a permanent limp, but allowed him to develop his interest in the cinema, since he recuperated with his leg elevated while watching films, including the works of [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[D.W. Griffith]] and others.<ref>Renoir, Jean. ''My Life and My Films'', New York: Atheneum, 1974, pp. 40–43</ref><ref>''Renoir My Father'', pp. 417–19.</ref> After the war, Renoir followed his father's suggestion and tried making  [[ceramic art]], but he soon set that aside to make films in the attempt, he would later claim, to make his wife, Hessling, a star.<ref name="ghost">Pérez, G: ''The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium'', p.193. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0-8018-6523-9}}</ref> He was particularly inspired by [[Erich von Stroheim]]'s work.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 47–48.</ref><ref>Renoir, Jean. "Memories", ''Le Point'' XVIII, December 1938. Reprinted in Bazin, Andre. ''Jean Renoir'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973, pp. 151–152</ref>

==Career==
===Early years===
In 1924, Renoir directed ''Une Vie Sans Joie'' or ''Catherine'', the first of his nine silent films, most of which starred his first wife, [[Catherine Hessling]], who was also his father's last model.<ref>Durgnat, p. 29. The name of the film was ''Une Vie Sans Joie'' or ''Catherine''.</ref>  At this stage, his films did not produce a return. Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 81–85</ref>

===International success in the 1930s===
During the 1930s Renoir enjoyed great success as a filmmaker. In 1931 he directed his first [[sound film]]s, ''[[On purge bébé]]'' (''Baby's Laxative'') and ''[[La Chienne]]'' (''The Bitch'').<ref>Durgnat, pp. 64, 68</ref> The following year he made ''[[Boudu Saved from Drowning]]'' (''Boudu sauvé des eaux''), a farcical sendup of the pretensions of a middle-class bookseller and his family, who meet with comic, and ultimately disastrous, results when they attempt to reform a vagrant played by [[Michel Simon]].<ref>Durgnat, pp. 85–87</ref> In 1934, he filmed [[Madame Bovary (1934 film)| an adaptation]] of [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s ''[[Madame Bovary]]'' (1857). His 1935 film [[Toni (1935 film)| ''Toni'']], shot on locations with a nonprofessional cast, was later an influence on the [[French New Wave]].<ref name="NYTObit"/>

By the middle of the decade, Renoir was associated with the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]]. Several of his films, such as ''[[The Crime of Monsieur Lange]]'' (''Le Crime de Monsieur Lange'', 1935), ''[[Life Belongs to Us]]'' (1936) and {{Lang|fr|[[La Marseillaise (film)|La Marseillaise]]}} (1938), reflect the movement's politics.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 124–127</ref><ref>Durgnat, pp. 108–131</ref>

In 1937, he made ''[[La Grande Illusion]]'', one of his best-known films, starring [[Erich von Stroheim]] and [[Jean Gabin]]. A film on the theme of brotherhood, relating a series of escape attempts by French [[POW]]s during World War I, it was enormously successful. It was banned in Germany, and later in Italy, after having won the Best Artistic Ensemble award at the [[Venice Film Festival]].<ref>Bazin, Andre. ''Jean Renoir'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973, pp. 56–66</ref> It was the first foreign language film to receive a nomination for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]]. In 1938, the Nazis disrupted a showing of ''La Grande Illusion.'' Renoir reflected, "This is a story that fills me with real pride."<ref name="NYTObit"/>

He followed it with ''[[La Bête Humaine (film)|The Human Beast]]'' ({{lang|fr|La Bête Humaine}}) (1938), a [[film noir]] and [[tragedy]] based on the novel by [[Émile Zola]] and starring Gabin and [[Simone Simon]]. It too was a success.<ref>Durgnat, pp. 172–184</ref>

In 1939, able to co-finance his own films,<ref>Durgnat, p. 185.</ref> Renoir made ''[[The Rules of the Game]]'' (''La Règle du Jeu''), a [[satire]] on contemporary French society with an ensemble cast.<ref>Gilliatt, Penelope. ''Jean Renoir: Essays, Conversations, Reviews'', New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1975, p. 59</ref> Renoir played the character Octave, who serves to connect characters from different social strata.<ref>Renoir, Jean. ''An Interview: Jean Renoir'', Copenhagen: Green Integer Books, 1998, p. 67</ref> The film was his greatest commercial failure,<ref>Volk, Carol. ''Renoir on Renoir: Interviews, Essays and Remarks'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 236</ref> met with derision by Parisian audiences at its premiere. He extensively reedited the work, but without success at the time.<ref>Durgnat, pp. 189–190</ref>

A few weeks after the outbreak of [[World War II]], the film was banned by the government. Renoir was a known pacifist and supporter of the [[French Communist Party]], which made him suspect in the tense weeks before the war began.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bergan |first1=Ronald |title=Jean Renoir, Projections of Paradise |date=1997 |publisher=The Overlook Press |page=205}}</ref> The ban was lifted briefly in 1940, but after the fall of France that June, it was banned again.<ref name="Durgnat, page 191">Durgnant, 191</ref> Subsequently, the original negative of the film was destroyed in an [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] bombing raid.<ref name="Durgnat, page 191"/> It was not until the 1950s that French film enthusiasts Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand, with Renoir's cooperation, reconstructed a near-complete print of the film.<ref>Faulkner, Christopher, ''Jean Renoir, a guide to references and resources'', Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Company, 1979, p. 34</ref><ref>Gilliatt, p. 60</ref> Since that time, ''The Rules of the Game'' has been reappraised and has frequently appeared near the top of critics' polls of [[List of films considered the best|the best films ever made]].<ref>{{cite web| title= Critics' top ten films of all time| url= http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics.html | website= Sight & Sound| publisher= British Film Institute| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120501133030/http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics.html |archivedate=1 May 2012 | access-date= 4 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/take/one/full_list.php3?category=10 |title=Take One: The First Annual Village Voice Film Critics' Poll |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070826201343/http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/take/one/full_list.php3?category=10 |archive-date= 26 August 2007 | work= [[Village Voice]] | year= 1999| accessdate= 7 June 2009}}</ref>

A week after the disastrous premiere of ''The Rules of the Game'' in July 1939, Renoir went to Rome with [[Carl Koch (director)|Karl Koch]] and Dido Freire, subsequently his second wife, to work on the script for a film version of ''[[Tosca]]''.<ref name="Durgnat, page 213">Durgnat, p. 213.</ref><ref>David Thompson and Lorraine LoBianco (ed.) ''Jean Renoir: Letters'', London: Faber & Faber, 1994, p. 61</ref> At the age of 45, he became a lieutenant in the French Army Film Service. He was sent  back to Italy, to teach film at the [[Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia]] in Rome, and resume work on ''[[Tosca]]''.<ref name="Durgnat, page 213"/><ref name="Films pages 175-176">''My Life and My Films'', pp. 175–176</ref><ref>''Jean Renoir: Letters'', pp. 62–65.</ref> The [[French government]] hoped this cultural exchange would help maintain friendly relations with Italy, which had not yet entered the war.<ref name="Durgnat, page 213"/><ref name="Films pages 175-176"/><ref>Thompson and LoBianco, p. 65</ref> He abandoned the project to return to France and make himself available for military service in August 1939.<ref name="Durgnat, p. 213">Durgnat, p. 213</ref><ref>''My Life and My Films'', p. 177</ref><ref>''Jean Renoir: Letters'', pp. 61, 64</ref>

===Hollywood===
After Germany invaded France in May 1940, Renoir fled to the United States with Dido Freire.<ref>Durgnat, p. 222.</ref><ref>Thompson and LoBianco, p. 87</ref> "Dido and I travelled by sea from Marseilles to Algeria, Morocco and Lisbon... At Lisbon we got places on an American ship, and I was delighted to find myself sharing a cabin with none other than the writer Saint-Exupéry."<ref>{{cite book| author=Jean Renoir| title=My Life and My Films| page=183}}</ref> In [[Hollywood (film industry)|Hollywood]], Renoir had difficulty finding projects that suited him.<ref>Volk, pp. 10–30</ref> His first American film, ''[[Swamp Water]]'' (1941), was a drama starring [[Dana Andrews]] and [[Walter Brennan]]. He co-produced and directed an anti-[[Nazi]] film set in France, ''[[This Land Is Mine (film)|This Land Is Mine]]'' (1943), starring [[Maureen O'Hara]] and [[Charles Laughton]].<ref>Durgnat, pp. 234–236.</ref><ref>Thompson and LoBianco, p. 183</ref> ''[[The Southerner (1945 film)|The Southerner]]'' (1945) is a film about [[Texas]] [[sharecropping|sharecroppers]] that is often regarded as his best American film. He was nominated  for an [[Academy Award for Directing]] for this work.<ref>Durgnat, p. 244</ref><ref>Bazin, p. 103</ref><ref name= honorary74>{{cite web |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org |title= Jean Renoir |publisher= Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | website= awardsdatabase.oscars.org |date= | quote= 1974 (47th) HONORARY AWARD To Jean Renoir – a genius who, with grace, responsibility and enviable devotion through silent film, sound film, feature, documentary and television, has won the world's admiration. |access-date=4 January 2023}}</ref>

''[[The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946 film)|Diary of a Chambermaid]]'' (1946) is an adaptation of the [[Octave Mirbeau]] novel, ''Le Journal d'une femme de chambre'', starring [[Paulette Goddard]] and [[Burgess Meredith]].<ref>Thompson and LoBianco, pp. 165–169.</ref><ref>Durgnat, p. 252.</ref> His ''[[The Woman on the Beach]]'' (1947), starring [[Joan Bennett]] and [[Robert Ryan]], was heavily reshot and reedited after it fared poorly among preview audiences in California.<ref>Durgnat, p. 261.</ref> Both films were poorly received; they were the last films Renoir made in America.<ref>Durgnat, p. 259.</ref><ref>Volk, p. 24.</ref><ref>''My Life and My Films'', p. 247</ref> At this time, Renoir became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States.<ref>Thompson and LoBianco, pp. 207, 270</ref>

===Post-Hollywood===
In 1949 Renoir traveled to India to shoot ''[[The River (1951 film)|The River]]'' (1951), his first color film.<ref>Durgnat, pp. 273–274</ref> Based on the novel of the same name by [[Rumer Godden]], the film is both a meditation on human beings' relationship with nature and a [[coming of age]] story of three young girls in [[colonial India]].<ref>Durgnat, pp. 273, 275–276</ref> The film won the International Prize at the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1951.<ref>Durgnat, p. 284</ref>

After returning to work in Europe, Renoir made a trilogy of color [[musical comedy|musical comedies]] on the subjects of theater, politics and commerce: ''[[The Golden Coach|Le Carrosse d'or]]'' (''The Golden Coach'', 1953) with [[Anna Magnani]]; ''[[French Cancan]]'' (1954) with [[Jean Gabin]] and [[María Félix]]; and ''[[Eléna et les hommes]]'' (''Elena and Her Men'', 1956) with [[Ingrid Bergman]] and [[Jean Marais]].<ref>Durgnat, p. 400</ref> During the same period Renoir produced [[Clifford Odets]]' play ''[[The Big Knife]]'' in Paris. He also wrote his own play, ''[[Orvet]]'', and produced it in Paris featuring [[Leslie Caron]].<ref>Faulkner, pp. 33–34</ref><ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 274–275</ref>

Renoir made his next films with techniques adapted from live television.<ref>Renoir, Jean. ''Ecrits 1926–1971'', Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1974, pp. 286–289</ref> ''Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe'' (''Picnic on the Grass'', 1959), starring Paul Meurisse and [[Catherine Rouvel]], was filmed on the grounds of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's home in [[Cagnes-sur-Mer]], and ''[[Le Testament du docteur Cordelier]]'' (''The Testament of Doctor Cordelier'', also 1959), starring [[Jean-Louis Barrault]], was made in the streets of Paris and its suburbs.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', p. 277</ref><ref>''Ecrits 1926–1971'', pp. 292–294</ref>

Renoir's penultimate film, ''[[Le Caporal épinglé]]'' (''The Elusive Corporal'', 1962), with [[Jean-Pierre Cassel]] and [[Claude Brasseur]],<ref>Bazin, p. 300-301</ref> is set among French POWs during their 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.<ref>Durgnat, pp. 357–367.</ref><ref>Bazin, pp. 301–4</ref>

Renoir's loving memoir of his father, ''[[Renoir, My Father]]'' (1962) describes the profound influence his father had on him and his work.<ref>Durgnat, pp. 368–372</ref> As funds for his film projects were becoming harder to obtain, Renoir continued to write screenplays for income. He published a novel, ''[[The Notebooks of Captain Georges]]'', in 1966.<ref>Durgnat, p. 373</ref><ref>Faulkner, pp. 37–38</ref> ''Captain Georges'' is the nostalgic account of a wealthy young man's sentimental education and love for a [[peasant]] girl, a theme also explored earlier in his films ''[[The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946 film)|Diary of a Chambermaid]]'' and ''[[Picnic on the Grass]]''.<ref>Thompson and LoBianco, p. 455, 463</ref>

===Last years===
Renoir's last film is ''[[The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir|Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir]]'' (''The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir''), released in 1970.<ref>Bazin, p. 306</ref> It is a series of three short films made in a variety of styles. It is, in many ways, one of his most challenging, avant-garde and unconventional works.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', pp. 277–278.</ref><ref>Rohmer, Eric. "''Notes sur Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir''", in ''Cinema 79'' No. 244, April 1979, pp. 20–24</ref>

Unable to obtain financing for his films and suffering declining health, Renoir spent his last years receiving friends at his home in Beverly Hills, and writing novels and his memoirs.<ref>Thompson and LoBianco, pp. 509–553</ref>

In 1973 Renoir was preparing a production of his stage play, ''[[Carola]],'' with [[Leslie Caron]] and [[Mel Ferrer]] when he fell ill and was unable to direct. The producer [[Norman Lloyd]], a friend and actor in ''The Southerner'', took over the direction of the play. It was broadcast in the series program ''Hollywood Television Theater'' on WNET, Channel 13, New York on 3 February 1973.<ref name="Faulkner, page 40">Faulkner, p. 40</ref>

Renoir's memoir, ''[[My Life and My Films]]'', was published in 1974. He wrote of the influence exercised by [[Gabrielle Renard]], his nanny and his mother's cousin, with whom he developed a mutual lifelong bond. He concluded his memoirs with the words he had often spoken as a child, "Wait for me, Gabrielle."<ref>''My Life and My Films'', p. 282</ref> 

In 1975 Renoir received a lifetime [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for his contribution to the motion picture industry. That same year a retrospective of his work was shown at the [[BFI Southbank|National Film Theatre]] in London.<ref>Faulkner, pp. 40–41</ref> Also in 1975, the government of France elevated him to the rank of commander in the [[Légion d'honneur]].<ref name="Interview page 18">''An Interview: Jean Renoir'', p. 18</ref>

==Personal life and death==
Renoir was married to [[Catherine Hessling]], an actress and model. After many years, they divorced. His second wife was Dido Freire.
 
Renoir's son [[Alain Renoir]] (1921–2008) became a professor of English and [[comparative literature]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] and a scholar of [[medieval English literature]].<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J3qNgjUxCQC&pg=PA296 |title = Enlarging America: The Cultural Work of Jewish Literary Scholars, 1930–1990|isbn = 9780815605409|last1 = Klingenstein|first1 = Susanne|date = December 1998|page=296| publisher=Syracuse University Press }}</ref>

Jean Renoir died in [[Beverly Hills, California]], on 12 February 1979 of a [[heart attack]].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/14/archives/jean-renoir-director-of-grand-illusion-film-dies-outlook-like.html|title=Jean Renoir, Director of 'Grand Illusion' Film, Dies|first=Paul|last=Montgomery|newspaper=The New York Times|date=14 February 1979}}</ref>  His body was returned to France and buried beside his family in the cemetery at [[Essoyes]], France.<ref>Thompson and LoBianco, p. 555</ref>

==Legacy==
{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 25em
| bgcolor = Bisque
| quote = "His work unfolds as if he had devoted his most brilliant moments to fleeing the masterpiece, to escape any notion of the definite and the fixed, so as to create a semi-improvisation, a deliberately 'open' work that each viewer can complete for himself, comment on as it suits him, approach from any side."
| source = — [[François Truffaut]]<ref name=Truffaut>{{cite news| title=François Truffaut, New Wave Director, Dies|  last=Pace|  first=Eric| date=October 22, 1984|  work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
}}
On his death, fellow director and friend [[Orson Welles]] wrote "Jean Renoir: The Greatest of All Directors" in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=120 | last= Welles| first= Orson| title= Jean Renoir: The Greatest of All Directors| work= Los Angeles Times| date= 23 November 2006|via= wellesnet.com| access-date= 4 January 2023}}</ref> Renoir's films have influenced many other directors, including [[Éric Rohmer]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010julsep/rohmer.html|title=The Human Comedies of Eric Rohmer |access-date=14 May 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130621164221/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010julsep/rohmer.html|archive-date=21 June 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Straub-Huillet|Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet]],<ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XReQgljv_bwC|title=Landscapes of Resistance: The German Films of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub |isbn=9780520089105|access-date=14 May 2013|last1=Byg|first1=Barton|date=January 1995|publisher=University of California Press }}</ref> [[Peter Bogdanovich]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/news/peter-bogdanovich-talks-roger-corman-other-influences-141100697.html|title=Peter Bogdanovich Talks Roger Corman, Other Influences|publisher=yahoo.com|access-date=14 May 2013}}</ref> [[François Truffaut]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2010/08/francois-truffaut-last-interview.html|title=Truffaut's Last Interview|date=29 July 2010|publisher=newyorker.com|access-date=14 May 2013}}</ref> [[Robert Altman]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/feb/01/theatre.arthurmiller|title=Robert Altman talks to Michael Billington |work=guardian.co.uk|access-date= 14 May 2013|location=London|date=2 February 2006}}</ref> [[Errol Morris]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/02/28/frederick-wiseman-the-tawdry-gruesomeness-of-reality/|title=The Tawdry Gruesomeness of Reality, Errol Morrs|date=28 February 2011|access-date=14 May 2013}}</ref> [[Martin Scorsese]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/11-great-french-films-recommended-by-martin-scorsese/|title=11 Great French Films Recommended by Martin Scorsese|work=Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists|access-date=15 August 2018|language=en-us}}</ref> and [[Mike Leigh]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WfTwUfsjxSQC|title=The Films of Mike Leigh |isbn=9780521485180 |access-date=14 May 2013|last1=Carney |first1=Ray |last2=Quart |first2=Leonard |date=19 June 2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Truffaut named his production company "Les Films du Carrosse" after Renoir's  ''[[The Golden Coach]]'' (''La Carrosse d'Or'').<ref name=Truffaut/> Four of Renoir's crew members, [[Satyajit Ray]],<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.satyajitray.org/bio/renoir_meet.htm| title= Encounter With Jean Renoir| publisher= | website= satyajitray.org| access-date= 14 May 2013| archive-date= 30 May 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130530211809/http://www.satyajitray.org/bio/renoir_meet.htm| url-status= dead}}</ref> [[Luchino Visconti]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vmMH_muqTycC&q=jean+renoir+interviews|title= Jean Renoir: interviews|isbn= 9781578067312|access-date=14 May 2013|last1= Renoir|first1= Jean|year= 2005|publisher= Univ. Press of Mississippi}}</ref> [[Robert Aldrich]]<ref>Arnold, Edward T. and Miller, Eugene, L. (1986). ''The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich''. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, Tennessee. {{ISBN| 0-87049-504-6}}, p.7.</ref> and [[Jacques Becker]],<ref name="rege">{{cite book|last=Rège|first=Philippe|date=2010|title=Encyclopedia of French Film Directors|volume=1, A-M|location=Lanham, MD|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|page=68|isbn=9780810861374 }}</ref><ref name="pinel">{{cite book|last=Pinel|first=Vincent|date=2006|title=Cinéma français|location=Paris|publisher=Éditions Cahiers du Cinéma|pages=145–147|isbn=9782866423834 }}</ref><ref name="merigeau">{{cite book|last=Mérigeau|first=Pascal|date=2016|title=Jean Renoir|location=Burbank, CA|publisher=RatPac Press|page=78|isbn=9780762456086 }}</ref><ref name="renoir">{{cite book|last=Renoir|first=Jean|translator-last=Denny|translator-first=Norman|date=1974|title=My Life and My Films|location=London|publisher=Collins|pages=88–90|isbn=0002167050 }}</ref> would go on to become highly acclaimed directors in their own right. He was an influence on the [[French New Wave]], and his memoir is dedicated "to those film-makers who are known to the public as the 'New Wave' and whose preoccupations are mine."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Renoir |first=Jean |title=My Life and My Films |year=1974 |pages=9}}</ref> Altman said "I learned the rules of the game from ''The Rules of the Game.''"<ref>{{cite news|last=Ebert| first=Roger| title=The Rules of the Game| date=February 29, 2004| work=Chicago Sun Times| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-rules-of-the-game-1939}}</ref>  

Renoir has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 6212 Hollywood Blvd.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/jean-renoir|title=Jean Renoir – Hollywood Walk of Fame|website= walkoffame.com|access-date=4 June 2018}}</ref> Several of his ceramics were collected by [[Albert C. Barnes|Albert Barnes]], who was a major patron and collector of Renoir's father. These can be found on display beneath [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]]'s paintings at the [[Barnes Foundation]] in Philadelphia.<ref>''My Life and My Films'', page 230.</ref>

According to [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]], Renoir was "the model of humanist cinema, an informal genre that included [[Frank Capra]], [[Vittorio De Sica]], [[Satyajit Ray]], [[Yasujirō Ozu]] or even [[Charlie Chaplin]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |title=A Light in The Dark. A History of Movie Directors |publisher=W&N |year=2020 |isbn=978-1474619844 |pages=48}}</ref> In ''[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]]'', he writes: "Renoir asks us to see the variety and muddle of life without settling for one interpretation. He is the greatest of directors, he justifies cinema ... In ''Renoir, My Father'' and in his own autobiography, ''My Life and My Films,'' Jean clearly adopts his father's wish to float on life like a cork. That same stream carries Boudu away to freedom, wrinkles with pain at the end of ''[[Partie de campagne]]'', overflows and engenders precarious existence in [[The Southerner (film)|''The Southerner'']], and is meaning itself in [[The River (1951 film) |''The River'']]:
<blockquote>
The river runs, the round world spins

Dawn and lamplight, midnight, noon.

Sun follows day, night stars and moon.

The day ends, the end begins."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |title=[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]] |year=2010 |edition=5th |pages=812}}</ref></blockquote>

==Awards==
* Chevalier de Légion d'honneur, 1936<ref name="Faulkner, page 16">Faulkner, p. 16.</ref>
* Selznick Golden Laurel Award for lifetime work, Brazilian Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, 1958<ref>Faulkner, page 34.</ref>
* [[Charles-Blanc Prize|Prix Charles Blanc]], Académie française, for ''[[Renoir, My Father]]'', biography of father, 1963<ref>Faulkner, page 36.</ref>
* Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, University of California, Berkeley, 1963<ref name="Faulkner, page 37">Faulkner, page 37.</ref>
* Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1964<ref name="Faulkner, page 37"/>
* Osella d'Oro as a master of the cinema, Venice Festival, 1968<ref>Faulkner, page 39.</ref>
* Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Royal College of Art, London, 1971<ref name="Faulkner, page 40"/>
* [[Honorary Academy Award]] for Career Accomplishment, 1974<ref name= honorary74 />
*Special Award, [[National Society of Film Critics]], 1975<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/157641739 "Film Critics Honor Bergman's ''Scenes From a Marriage''"] . ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. 10 January 1975.</ref>
* Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, 1975<ref name="Interview page 18"/>
* [[Prix Goncourt de la Biographie]], 2013

==Filmography==
{{Main|Jean Renoir filmography}}

==Bibliography==

=== Renoir's writings ===
*1955: ''Orvet'', Paris: Gallimard, play.
*1960: ''Carola'', play. Reworked as a screenplay and published in "L'Avant-Scène du Théâtre" no. 597, 1 November 1976.
*1962: ''Renoir'', Paris: Hachette (''[[Renoir, My Father]]''), biography.
*1966: ''Les Cahiers du Capitaine Georges'', Paris: Gallimard (''[[The Notebooks of Captain Georges]]''), novel.
*1974: ''Ma Vie et mes Films'', Paris: Flammarion (''[[My Life and My Films]]''), autobiography.
*1974: ''Écrits 1926–1971'' (Claude Gauteur, ed.), Paris: Pierre Belfond, writings.
*1978: ''Le Coeur à l'aise'', Paris: Flammarion, novel.
*1978 ''Julienne et son amour; suivi d'En avant Rosalie!'', Paris: Henri Veyrier, screenplays.
*1979: ''Le crime de l'Anglais'', Paris: Flammarion, novel.
*1980: ''Geneviève'', Paris: Flammarion, novel.

=== Writings featuring Renoir ===
*1979: ''Jean Renoir: Entretiens et propos'' (Jean Narboni, ed.), Paris: Éditions de l'étoile/Cahiers du Cinéma, interviews and remarks.
*1981: ''Œuvres de cinéma inédités'' (Claude Gauteur, ed.), Paris: Gallimard, synopses and treatments.
*1984: ''Lettres d'Amérique'' (Dido Renoir & Alexander Sesonske, eds.), Paris: Presses de la Renaissance {{ISBN|2-85616-287-8}}, correspondence.
*1989: ''Renoir on Renoir: Interviews, Essays, and Remarks'' (Carol Volk, tr.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*1994: ''Jean Renoir: Letters'' (David Thompson and Lorraine LoBianco, eds.), London: Faber & Faber, correspondence.
*2005: ''Jean Renoir: Interviews'' (Bert Cardullo, ed.), Jackson, MS:  Mississippi University Press, interviews.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite book |last1=Calais |first1=Séverine |title=Catalogue des personnages de l'œuvre filmique de Jean Renoir |publisher=Université de Nancy 2 |url=http://docnum.univ-lorraine.fr/public/NANCY2/doc305/2007NAN21020_2_opt.pdf |language=fr |quote=THESE Pour obtenir le grade de Docteur d'Université de Nancy 2 Doctorat nouveau régime Discipline Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication}}
*[https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf796nb4fk/entire_text/ Jean Renoir Papers] UCLA Library Special Collections
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020202174737/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/renoir.html Jean Renoir]: A Bibliography of Materials in the ''Media Resources Center'', [[University of California at Berkeley]] Library.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080506003016/http://www.fathom.com/feature/121697/ Jean Renoir Interview] conducted in 1960 with Columbia University's Oral History Research Office.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218180001/http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/renoir/ Je m'appelle Jean Renoir] at the University of Nancy 2, France. (In French)<!-- {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218180001/http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/renoir/ |date=18 February 2015 }} -->
* Faulkner, Christopher. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20050321060957/http://www.cjc-online.ca/viewarticle.php?id=637&layout=html An Archive of the (Political) Unconscious] <!-- {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050321060957/http://www.cjc-online.ca/viewarticle.php?id=637&layout=html |date=2005-03-21 }} -->" ''Canadian Journal of Communication'' [Online], 26 1 January 2001 — analysis of Renoir's FBI files.
* https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/PersonDetails/80577
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160301155137/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f3f0b7e]
* https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/160204%7C80577/Jean-Renoir
* {{IMDb name|719756}}

{{Jean Renoir}}
{{Academy Honorary Award}}
{{National Board of Review Award for Best Director}}
{{Pierre-Auguste Renoir}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Renoir, Jean}}
[[Category:Jean Renoir| ]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients]]
[[Category:Directors of Golden Lion winners]]
[[Category:Male actors from Paris]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia]]
[[Category:French emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:French male film actors]]
[[Category:French film directors]]
[[Category:20th-century French male actors]]
[[Category:People of Montmartre]]
[[Category:Renoir family|Jean]]