Jean Renoir Summary

Renoir, Jean (1894-1979) A French filmmaker who created some 37 films in the realist tradition during a 40-year career, Jean Renoir is regarded as a mentor to the French New Wave directors of the late... Read more

French-born Jean Renoir (1894-1979) directed two of the twentieth century's most critically acclaimed films, La Grande Illusion and La Regle du jeu (Rules of the Game), and is credited with inspiring ... Read more

Critical Essay by James Shelley Hamilton Changing a novel into a motion picture—really changing it from the medium of words into the medium of the camera—is a thorough-going process tha... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Whitehall Disjointed, lyrical, uneven, beautiful, [Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe] is magnificently in love with life, with nature. The warm, sunlit landscapes of Pro... Read more

Critical Essay by Raymond Durgnat Erotism in Renoir's work is linked so intimately with every aspect of life that it is impossible to separate them; every Renoir film is a hymn to fertility, t... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Harcourt [Renoir] has succeeded in providing us with some of the warmest, most tender moments in the cinema…. [However], what aspects of life must Renoir exclude from h... Read more

Critical Essay by Brenda Davies [La Marseillaise] is an optimistic film, full of hope and the joy of creation. It glows with summer sunshine as the amateur soldiers tramp the long leafy road from Mar... Read more

Critical Essay by John Bragin [The opening action of La Marseillaise] sets defining boundaries for the film, creates the tone of … revolution-as-theater, and allows Renoir to break from both t... Read more

Critical Essay by The New York Times Exactly what Jean Renoir had in mind when he wrote, performed in and directed "The Rules of the Game" … is anybody's guess. This is th... Read more

Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann [Le Petit Théâtre de Jean Renoir] is something of a bundle of reminiscences…. The old-fashioned feeling of the picture comes less from the abs... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Harcourt Along with those of Vigo, the films of Jean Renoir are the most tentative in the history of the cinema. They work by indirection, implying qualities and attitudes tha... Read more

Critical Essay by Elizabeth Grottle Strebel Renoir's receptivity to the French Left and active involvement with it played a critical role in shaping his artistic vision at a time when he was c... Read more