Jean Renoir display - February 2006

1-28 February 2006, Reading Room

Jean Renoir (1894-1979)

French director, actor, scriptwriter and producer

Francois Truffaut and Orson Welles described Renoir as "the greatest filmmaker in the world". There is no doubt that Renoir has dominated both the French cinema of the classical period and the international pantheon of great auteurs.

The second son of Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir, Jean grew up in the artistic milieu of turn-of-the-century Paris. Much - too much - has been made of this legacy, though it was of consequence for Renoir's realist aesthetics and financial independence. Following World War I, in which he was wounded, and an attempt at ceramics, Renoir's film career began when he scripted Catherine (or Un Vie sans joie, 1924, directed by Albert Dieudonne). Renoir then directed his first film, La Fille de l'eau (1925), followed by several more, notably Nana (1926) and La Petite marchande d'allumettes/The Little Match Girl (1928, with Jean Tedesco), all displaying Hessling's expressionist performances, in contrast to Renoir's naturalistic use of actors in his later films. Yet Renoir's realism goes hand in hand with the theatrical, most of his films alluding to, or staging, spectacles.

Renoir's 1930s films, such as Boudu, Partie de campagne, Toni, La Bête humaine, and La Regle du jeu, offer a Zolaesque panorama of French society, while working-class solidarity is expressed in Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, La Vie est à nous, and La Marseillaise.

After World War II, Renoir left France for Hollywood, where he made six American films with limited success. As his film career stalled, he turned to writing (novels and autobiographies), to the theatre, and to television.

Because several Renoir films found little commercial success and La Regle du jeu, considered his masterpiece, was a resounding failure, he is often regarded as a misunderstood genius. Considered a role model for the French New Wave cinema, Renoir was awarded an Oscar for life achievement in 1975 and the French legion d'honneur in 1977.

Reproduced with kind permission from Ginette Vincendeau, from The Companion to French Cinema (BFI, 1996).

Reading Room display

The display in the bfi National Library Reading Room Display exhibited a number of interesting items from Jean Renoir's life and work, including both items from Special Collections, such as press books and scripts, and items from General Collections, featuring books by and about Renoir.

Special Collections contains a number of ephemera related to Jean Renoir, including the following:

• Lino-cut illustrated handbill for Une Partie de Campagne (1936) produced by Peter Strausfeld for the Academy Cinema, Oxford Street, London.
• An English dialogue script for La Grande Illusion (1937), Renoir's most successful film, as well as the press book for the 20th anniversary screening of the film at the Academy Cinema, London.
• The English-language script and a French press book for La Regle du Jeu (1939).
• A press book for Renoir's first Hollywood film, Swamp Water (1941).
• A press book for The Diary of a Chambermaid (US, 1946) starring Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith.
• Two press books for The Woman on the Beach (1947), starring Joan Bennett, featuring an advertising poster with the intriguing tagline "go ahead and say it…I'm no good!"
• A press book and undated screenplay for The River, Renoir's first colour film, which was shot in India and won the International Prize at Cannes in 1951.
• An Italian press book for Elena et les Hommes (1956), a musical comedy starring Ingrid Bergman and Jean Marais.
• An autographed letter from Jean Renoir sending his best wishes to the BFI (dated 1969).
• An Information folder produced by the BFI to promote the 1994 re-release of Une Partie de Campagne (1936) and Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1935) to mark the centenary of Renoir's birth.

The bfi National Library maintains a large and varied research collection on both Jean Renoir specifically, and French cinema in general, which can be consulted in the Reading Room. These include Renoir on Renoir: interviews, essays, and remarks, The Notebooks of Captain Georges (a novel by Jean Renoir), My Life and My Films (Renoir's biography), a variety of published film scripts, and many more, featured in this current display. Our SIFT database also contains 192 indexed journal articles on Jean Renoir, dating as far back as 1938.

For more information on the holdings of the bfi National Library, check our online catalogue or contact us.