Jean Renoir

Biography

Jean Renoir (15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. As an author, he wrote the definitive biography of his father, the painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Renoir, My Father (1962). In the 1930s, Renoir was associated with the Popular Front, and several of his films reflect the movement's left-wing politics and deal with social issues as well as class disparities. He was perhaps the most significant director of the poetic realism movement. The satirical comedy-drama film The Rules of the Game (1939) is often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made; it is the only film to earn a place among the top ten films in the respected British Film Institute's Sight & Sound decennial critics' poll for every decade from the poll's inception in 1952 through the 2012 list. Other important works are Grand Illusion (1937), A Day in the Country (1946) and The River (1951). Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of …

Directed

1. Grand Illusion (1937) — Director
2. The Rules of the Game (1939) — Director
3. La Bête Humaine (1938) — Director
4. A Day in the Country (1946) — Director
5. Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) — Director
6. La Chienne (1931) — Director
7. The River (1951) — Director
8. French Cancan (1955) — Director
9. The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) — Director
10. The Golden Coach (1952) — Director
11. The Lower Depths (1936) — Director
12. Toni (1935) — Director
13. This Land Is Mine (1943) — Director
14. The Southerner (1945) — Director
15. The Little Match Girl (1928) — Director
16. Picnic on the Grass (1959) — Director
17. The Woman on the Beach (1947) — Director
18. Experiment in Evil (1960) — Director
19. Elena and Her Men (1956) — Director
20. Swamp Water (1941) — Director
21. La Marseillaise (1938) — Director
22. The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) — Director
23. Nana (1926) — Director
24. Night at the Crossroads (1932) — Director
25. The Elusive Corporal (1962) — Director
26. Baby's Laxative (1931) — Director
27. Charleston Parade (1927) — Director
28. Whirlpool of Fate (1925) — Director
29. Madame Bovary (1934) — Director
30. Life Is Ours (1936) — Director
31. The Sad Sack (1928) — Director
32. Backbiters (1927) — Director
33. The Tournament (1928) — Director
34. Le Bled (1929) — Director
35. The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1974) — Director
36. Chotard and Co. (1933) — Director
37. A Salute to France (1944) — Director
38. Marquitta (1927) — Director
39. A Bum Deal (1935) — Director
40. The Ways of Love (1950) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Rules of the Game (1939) — Octave
2. La Bête Humaine (1938) — Cabuche
3. A Day in the Country (1946) — Père Poulain
4. Charleston Parade (1927) — Angel
5. The Spanish Earth (1937) — Narrator (voice)
6. La P’tite Lili (1927) — Man with Bowler Hat
7. Life Is Ours (1936) — Le patron du bistrot
8. Louis Lumière (1968) — Self
9. Backbiters (1927) — le sous-préfet
10. Those of Our Land (1915) — Self
11. The Christian Licorice Store (1971) — Self
12. The Emma Bovary Trial (2021) — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
13. The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1974) — The Narrator/Host
14. Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931) — Master sergeant (uncredited)
15. Directing Actors by Jean Renoir (1969) — Self
16. Langlois (1970) — Self
17. Jean Renoir, le patron, 2e partie: La direction d'acteur (1967) — Self - Interviewee
18. François Truffaut l'insoumis (2014) — Self (archive footage)
19. Le Parti du cinéma (2021) — Self (voice) (archive footage)
20. Cinépanorama (1956) — Self
21. Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II (1993) — Self (archive footage)
22. Un tournage à la campagne (1994) — Self
23. Jean Renoir, le patron, 1re partie: La recherche du relatif (1967) — Self
24. Little Red Riding Hood (1930) — Compère le Loup
25. The Pursuit of Happiness (1930)
26. Postface: La Petite Marchande d'allumettes (1969) — Jean Renoir
27. L'album de famille de Jean Renoir (1956) — Self
28. Cinéastes de notre temps : Erich von Stroheim (2012) — Self
29. Quand Jean devint Renoir (2017) — Self (archive footage)
30. D'un Céline l'autre (1969) — Self
31. Discorama (1959) — Self
32. Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma (1978) — Self (archive footage)
33. Jean Renoir, le patron, 3e partie: La règle et l'exception (1967) — Self
34. Jean Renoir parle de son art (1961) — Interviewee
35. La règle du jeu de Jean Renoir: Une analyse du film par l'image (1987) — Self (archive footage)