Director Jean Renoir
in VHS & Print
The son of Impressionist painter Pierre August Renoir, Jean Renoir was born in Monmartre, Paris on September 15, 1894. When his father died in 1919, Jean used his inheritance to start a film production company. He worked in Hollywood in the 1940s and became a U.S. citizen, but turned to international film production during the 1950s. The director was honored with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1975 and the French Legion of Honor in 1977. Jean Renoir died in Los Angeles on February 12, 1979.
The following films are listed in chronological order. All videos are in French with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.
The Little Match Girl ; Charleston. Match seller Catherine Hessling dreams of a better life in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl (1928-29 min.). In Charleston (1927-15 min.), Parisian jungle girl Hessling teaches a black-faced explorer to dance in Charleston. Jean and screenwriter Pierre Lestringuez appear as angels. Silent with musical score. VH2/LITT-0001.
The Death of the Duke of Guise ; The Tournament. The first film (1908-11 min.), by Andre Calmettes and Charles Le Baron, recreates court intrigues in 16th century France. The second title (1928-35 min.), directed by Renoir, is set during the rule of Catherine de Medici (Blanche Bernis), and features a joust between two rivals for the hand of a fair maiden. Silent with musical score. VH2/DEAT-0001.
La Chienne. The relationship between a timid man (Michel Simon), a cold-hearted prostitute (Janie Mareze) and a ruthless pimp (Georges Flamant) leads to murder. In his first major talkie, Renoir pioneered the use of on-location sound synchronization. Fritz Lang's remake is called Scarlet Street (VH1/SCAR-0001). 1931. 95 min. VH1/LACH-0001.
Boudu Saved from Drowning. After a suicide attempt, pesky hobo Michel Simon disrupts the bourgeois household that takes him in. Paul Mazursky remade this social satire as Down and Out in Beverly Hills (VH1/DOWN-0001). 1932. 87 min. VH1/BOUD-0001.
Madame Bovary. This Gustave Flaubert adaptation stars Valentine Tessier as the bored wife of a doctor (Pierre Renoir) who amuses herself with love affairs. Compare this with remakes by Vincente Minnelli (VH1/MADA-0003) and Claude Chabrol (VH1/MADA-0004). 1933. 102 min. VH1/MADA-0002.
Toni. This tale of love, betrayal and murder among Italian and Spanish immigrants working in a French quarry was shot on location with nonprofessional actors. Toni served as inspiration for the Italian neo-realist movement of the 1940s. 1934. 90 min. VH1/TONI-0001.
The Crime of Monsieur Lange. A fiction-writing clerk (Rene Lefevre) and his colleagues take over a publishing firm when their boss (Jules Barry) mysteriously disappears. Jacques Prevert penned this ode to collectivism. 1935. 90 min. VH1/CRIM-0003.
A Day in the Country (Une Partie de Campagne). In this adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant story, a young woman (Sylvia Bataille) comes of age during a family outing on the banks of the Marne. 1936. 40 min. VH2/DAYI-0002.
The Lower Depths (Les Bas-Fonds). A thief (Jean Gabin) befriends a destitute baron (Louis Jouvet) in this adaptation of the Maxim Gorky play. 1936. 92 min. VH1/LOWE-0002. (Compare this to Akira Kurosawa's Japanese remake, VH1/LOWE-0001).
Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion). This edition of writer/director Renoir's masterpiece about French officers in a German prison camp was struck from the long-lost original negative. Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Jean Dasté, Gaston Modot, and Marcel Dalio star. 1938. 113 min. Also, Renoir's introduction and a look at the film's restoration (9 min.). VH1/GRAN-0002.
La Marseillaise. Renoir's recreation of the French Revolution stars Pierre Renoir as Louis XVI, Lise Delamare as Marie Antoinette and Louis Jouvet as a public prosecutor. 1937. 130 min. VH1/LAMA-0001.
La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast). A train engineer (Jean Gabin) and his lover (Simone Simon) plot to kill her husband (Fernand Ledoux). Fritz Lang remade this Emile Zola story as Human Desire (VH1/HUMA-0006). 1938. 101 min. VH1/LABE-0002.
The Rules of the Game (La Regle du Jeu). In writer/director/actor Jean Renoir's masterpiece, the amorous charades of aristocrats on a weekend hunting party are mirrored by their servants. Nora Gregor, Mila Parely and Marcel Dalio co-star. 1939. 115 min. Also, a 9-minute clip from Jacques Rivette's 1967 docuemtary, Jean Renoir le Patron. VH1/RULE-0001.
This Land Is Mine. Cowardly French schoolmaster Charles Laughton defies the Gestapo. Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders and Walter Slezak co-star. In English. 1943. 103 min. VH1/THIS-0007.
The Southerner. Farmer Zachary Scott and wife Betty Field struggle against nature and hostile neighbors. Renoir received help from assistant director Robert Aldrich and dialogue consultant William Faulkner. In English. 1945. 91 min. VH1/SOUT-0002.
Diary of a Chambermaid. Paulette Goddard plays a chambermaid surrounded by would-be seducers. Renoir directed from a script by producer/co-star Burgess Meredith (then Goddard's husband). With Hurd Hatfield, Francis Lederer and Judith Anderson. Compare this to Luis Bunuel's remake, VH1/DIAR-0001. 1946. 81 min. VH1/DIAR-00007.
The River. Claude Renoir supplied the ravishing Technicolor cinematography for this story of three adolescent girls living in Calcutta, who develop a crush on a wounded American soldier. In English. 1951. 99 min. VH1/RIVE-0002.
The Golden Coach. An amorous actress (Anna Magnani) and her troupe tour 18th century South America. Critic Eric Rohmer called this film "the open sesame of Renoir's work." Claude Renoir again photographed in Technicolor. Dubbed in English. 1952. VH1/GOLD-0004 runs 101 minutes; VH1/GOLD-0013 runs 103 minutes.
French Cancan. Nightclub impresario Jean Gabin oversees the creation of the bawdy dance. This valentine to the Moulin Rouge was Renoir's first French-made film in 15 years. 1954. 105 min. VH1/FREN-0003.
Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes). Impoverished Polish princess Ingrid Bergman must choose between suitors Jean Marais and Mel Ferrer. 1956. 98 min. VH1/ELEN-0002.
The Testament of Doctor Cordelier. In this variation on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, refined scientist Cordelier (Jean-Louis Barrault) turns himself into a vicious thug, Monsieur Opale (Barrault again). 1959. 95 min. VH1/TEST-0003.
Picnic on the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe). Stuffy professor Paul Meruisse falls for peasant girl Catherine Rouvel in this celebration of country life. 1959. 90 min. VH1/PICN-0002.
The Elusive Corporal (Le Corporal Epingle). During WWII, a French officer (Jean-Pierre Cassell) repeatedly attempts to escape from a German prison camp. Renoir drew inspiration for this comedy from his days as a silent filmmaker. 1962. 108 min. VH1/ELUS-0001.
The Little Theater of Jean Renoir (La Petite Theatre de Jean Renoir). Renoir introduces four vignettes which he wrote and directed for French television: The Last Christmas Eve Party, The Electric Floor Polisher, When Love Dies (with Jeanne Moreau), and The King of Yvetot. This was to be his last work. 1969. 100 min. VH2/LITT-0001.
Carola. French actress Leslie Caron faces a difficult decision when the Gestapo searches her theater for a resistance fighter. Norman Lloyd's production of this Jean Renoir play co-stars Mel Ferrer and Anthony Zerbe. A Broadway Theatre Archive video. 1972. 117 min. VH2/CARO-0003.
Jean Renoir's autobiography is available in English as My Life and My Films (791.4302 Renoir) an in French as Ma Vie et Mes Films (FR B Renoir R). You can also borrow his biography of his famous parent, titled Renoir, My Father (B Renoir R), and his screenplay for Grand Illusion (791.437 R). His other writings are compiled in Renoir on Renoir: Interviews, Essays, and Remarks (791.4302 Renoir), David Thompson and Lorraine LoBianco's Jean Renoir: Letters (791.4302 Renoir), and Andre Bazin's What Is Cinema?: Volume 1 (791.43B) (Renoir penned the introduction). Learn more about this great director with Ronald Bergan's Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise (791.4302 Renoir B), Cecilia Bertin's Jean Renoir: A Life in Pictures (791..4302 Renoir B), Richard Boston's Boudu Saved from Drowning (791.4372B), Leo Braudy's Jean Renoir: The World of His Films (791.4302 Renoir B), Martin O'Shaughnessy's Jean Renoir (791,4302 Renoir O), and Alexander Sesonske's Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939 (791.4302 Renoir S).
Renoir's brother Pierre starred in a number of Jean's films, including La Mersaillaise and Madame Bovary; he also appeared in Marcel Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis (VH1/LESE-0001). Pierre's son Claude served as cinematographer on Toni, A Day in the Country, Grand Illusion, La Bete Humaine, La Marseillaise, The River, The Golden Coach, and Elena and Her Men; he also lensed Roger Vadim's segment of Les Histoires Extraordinaires de Edgar Allan Poe (VH1/LESH-0001), Maurice Cloche's Monsieur Vincent (VH1/MONS-0004), Henri-George Clouzot's The Mystery of Picasso (VH2/MYST-0001) and Vadim's Barbarella (VH1/BARB-0003).
List compiled by Jonathan Guildroy, October 2002
DIRECTOR JEAN RENOIR IN VHS
Our circulating VHS collection offers nearly 200 French films, including 24 works by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Jean Renoir. The son of Impressionist painter Pierre August Renoir, Jean was born in Paris in 1894. When his father died, Jean used his inheritance to start a film production company. In the surrealistic Charleston (1927), a jungle girl living in post-apocalyptic Paris teaches an explorer how to perform the title dance. The phantasmagorical The Little Match Girl (1928) retells Hans Christian Andersen's tragic tale of a dying pauper. Two rivals joust for the hand of a fair maiden in the 16th century drama, The Tournament (1928).
Renoir pioneered the use of on-location sound synchronization, filming La Chienne (1931) and Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) on the streets of Paris. Toni (1934), a tale of love and murder among immigrant quarry workers, served as inspiration for the Italian neo-realist movement of the 1940s. Other films of this period include Madame Bovary (1933), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1935), A Day in the Country (1936), The Lower Depths (1936), La Marseillaise (1937), and La Bete Humaine. (1938). The 1930s also saw Renoir's two greatest contributions to world cinema: Grand Illusion (1937) looks at honor among officers during WWI, and Rules of the Game (1939) satirizes the antics of aristocrats and servants.
Renoir next came to Hollywood, where he directed This Land Is Mine (1943), about the Nazi occupation, and The Southerner (1945), about a farm family's struggles. Although he became a U.S. citizen, Renoir turned to international film production, making The River (1951) in Calcutta and The Golden Coach (1952) in Italy. After 15 years abroad, he returned to his native soil for French Cancan (1954) and Elena and Her Men (1956). Renoir adapted television's multiple camera technique for a Jekyll-Hyde story, The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (1959), and the bucolic Picnic on the Grass (1959). The director drew on his experience in silent cinema for The Elusive Corporal (1962), about a French officer's repeated attempts to escape from a German prison camp.
Renoir ended his illustrious career writing, directing and introducing four short tales compiled as The Little Theater of Jean Renoir (1969). He was honored with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1975 and the French Legion of Honor in 1977. Jean Renoir died in Los Angeles on February 12, 1979.
Jean Renoir's autobiography is available in English as My Life and My Films and in French as Ma Vie et Mes Films. You can also borrow his biography of his famous parent, titled Renoir, My Father, his screenplay for Grand Illusion, and Renoir on Renoir: Interviews, Essays and Remarks. David Thompson and Lorraine LoBianco compile his correspondence in Jean Renoir: Letters. Learn more about this cinematic master with Ronald Bergan's Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise, Cecilia Bertin's Jean Renoir: A Life in Pictures, Leo Braudy's Jean Renoir: The World of His Films, and Alexander Sesonske's Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939.