Jean Renoir


Director, Screenwriter
Jean Renoir

About

Birth Place
Montmartre, Paris, FR
Born
September 15, 1894
Died
February 12, 1979

Biography

Renoir is arguably the greatest artist that the cinema has ever known, simply because he was able to work effectively in virtually all genres without sacrificing his individuality or bowing to public or commercial conventions. Although the son of the famed impressionist painter Auguste Renoir, his visual sensibility was entirely his own, and the technical facility that marks his films is...

Photos & Videos

Family & Companions

Andree Heuschling
Wife
Painter's model, actor. Married January 1920, divorced 1930, worked for Pierre-Auguste, appeared in "Catherine," "La Fille de l'eau," "Nana," "Sur un air de Charleston," "La Petite Marchande d'allumettes".
Marguerite Houlle
Companion
Film editor, actor. Appeared in "Partie de campagne/A Day in the Country," relationship with Jean ended late 1930s.
Dido Freire
Wife
Secretary, continuity assistant. Married February 1944, Alberto Cavalcanti's niece.

Bibliography

"Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise"
Ronald Bergan, Overlook Press (1995)
"Le Crime de l'anglais"
Jean Renoir (1979)
"Geneveive"
Jean Renoir (1979)
"Le Coeur a l'aise"
Jean Renoir (1978)

Biography

Renoir is arguably the greatest artist that the cinema has ever known, simply because he was able to work effectively in virtually all genres without sacrificing his individuality or bowing to public or commercial conventions. Although the son of the famed impressionist painter Auguste Renoir, his visual sensibility was entirely his own, and the technical facility that marks his films is the result of long and assiduous study.

Renoir's first serious interest in cinema developed during a period of recuperation after he had been wounded by a stray bullet while serving with the Alpine infantry in 1915. His first active involvement came in 1924, when money raised by the sale of some of his father's paintings (Auguste Renoir had died in 1919) allowed him to began production on "Catherine/Une Vie sans joie" in 1924. Renoir provided the screenplay and Albert Dieudonne the direction; Renoir's young wife Andree Madeleine Heuchling, a former model of his father's, was the star, with her name changed to Catherine Hessling for billing purposes. Renoir's first film as director, "La Fille de l'eau," was shot in 1924, with Renoir also functioning as producer and art director and Catherine Hessling again starring. Anticipating Jean Vigo's "L'Atalante" (1934), the film's plot centered on a young woman who lives and works on a river boat. It's modest success led Renoir to plunge, somewhat impulsively, into the direction of "Nana" (1926), an adaptation from the Zola novel which now looks uncharacteristically stagebound.

Nearly bankrupt, Renoir had to take out a loan to finance his next film, "Charleston" (1927), a 24-minute fantasy that featured Hessling teaching the popular title dance in costumes that were as brief as possible. After it attained only limited success, Renoir accepted a straight commercial directing job on "Marquitta" (1927).

Renoir's next significant film was "Tire-au-Flanc" (1928), a military comedy that Francois Truffaut would later call a visual "tour de force" and which marked the director's first collaboration with actor Michel Simon. The working relationship between Renoir and Hessling, meanwhile, had taken its toll; the couple separated in 1930, though Hessling continued to appear in Renoir's films through "Crime et chatiment/""Crime and Punishment" (1935).

To prove that he understood the new medium of the sound film, Renoir directed a down-and-dirty comedy based on a farce by Georges Feydeau, "On Purge Bebe" (1931). The film was shot on a very brief schedule, with Renoir apparently letting the camera run for as long as possible during each take, in order to work around the clumsy sound-on-disc recording apparatus. He also inserted a number of instances of mild "blue humor" (for example, the sound of a toilet heard flushing off-screen). Perhaps because he had aimed so resolutely for commercial success, Renoir's first talkie was a huge hit, allowing him to rush into production on his first major sound film, "La Chienne/The Bitch" (1931). This was the first of his films to be edited by Marguerite Mathieu, with whom Renoir became romantically involved at this time and who would later take the name Marguerite Renoir, though the couple never married. It was on this film, too, that Renoir developed his early strategy of sound shooting. In the face of objections from his producers down to his sound technicians, he insisted on using only natural sync-sound, recorded for the most part in actual locations. He also made extensive use of a moving camera, particularly in one sequence where the camera "waltzes" around the dance floor, keeping perfect time with the actors.

Renoir next directed his brother Pierre in "La Nuit du carrefour/Night at the Crossroads" (1932), a brilliant but little-seen detective film based on one of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret novels. He followed it with the delightful comedy, "Boudu sauve des eaux/Boudu Saved From Drowning" (1932). The film uses Renoir's by now polished on-location sync-sound shooting technique to tell the tale of Boudu (Michel Simon), a bum who is fished out of the Seine after a suicide attempt by a well-meaning bourgeois bookseller, Lestingois (Charles Granval). Taken into the Lestingois household, Boudu wreaks havoc until he escapes during a boating accident, free to wander again. The charm and invention of this beautiful film make it one of the glories of the early sound cinema. (It was remade in 1986 by director Paul Mazursky as "Down and Out in Beverly Hills.")

With the critical and popular success of "Boudu," Renoir embarked upon a project reminiscent of "Nana." "Madame Bovary" (1934) starred Pierre Renoir as Charles Bovary and Valentine Tessier as Emma Bovary. The first cut of the film ran three hours and thirty minutes, but it was eventually trimmed to two hours. Still, the film met with little commercial success; undeterred, Renoir began shooting "Toni" (1934) almost entirely on location in Martigues, using non-professional actors in most of the roles. "Toni" thus presages the Italian Neorealist movement by more than a decade, and in following his inherent bent for "naturalism," Renoir created a beautiful and tragic film which is now recognized as one of his finest works. Nevertheless, the film met with little public or critical favor, a pattern which was becoming increasingly familiar.

Renoir's next film, "The Crime of Monsieur Lange" (1936), marked the director's only collaboration with writer Jacques Prevert, and gave ample evidence of the director's increasing politicization. Marked by beautiful, fluid, yet carefully precise camera work, as well as the excellent ensemble acting of the Groupe Octobre, "The Crime of Monsieur Lange" is one of Renoir's finest and most accessible films. It was followed by "La Vie est a nous/People of France" (1936), a political tract which bears a striking resemblance to Godard's 16mm "cine tracts" of the late 1960s and early 70s. Initially withheld by the censor, the film enjoyed a limited release in the US in 1937 but was not shown to the paying French public until 1969, as a result of the student riots in France the previous May.

Renoir was now nearing the end of his first great stage of directorial activity, and in rapid succession he created a series of unforgettable films: "Une Partie de compagne/A Day in the Country "(1936), based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, completed in the face of considerable production difficulties, and not released in France until 1946 and the USA in 1950; "Les Bas fonds/The Lower Depths" (1936), an adaptation of the Maxim Gorky play; "La Grande Illusion/Grand Illusion" (1937), one of the best known and beloved films of all time, as compelling an anti-war document as has ever been created; "La Marseillaise" (1938), an examination of the events of the French Revolution, characteristically reduced to human scale, despite impressive production values; "La Bete humaine/The Human Beast" (1938), an adaptation of Zola's novel (remade by Fritz Lang in 1954 as "Human Desire"), and finally, "La Regle du jeu/The Rules of the Game" (1939), now universally recognized as the director's masterwork, although, amazingly enough, it was reviled upon its initial release. This astutely observed tale of romance among the aristocrats and working class during a sporting weekend in the country was a complete box-office failure on its initial release. The film was withdrawn after a brief run and not revived until 1945, and later 1948--and then only in a mutilated version which gave no sense of the original. It was not until 1965 that the "definitive" version of the film was painfully reconstructed from various archival materials.

Renoir spent much of 1939 in Rome, teaching at the Centro Sperimental di Cinematografia. He co-wrote, with Carl Koch and Luchino Visconti, a screen version of "La Tosca" and began production on it in the spring of 1940, only to be interrupted by Italy's entry into WWII. Koch completed the film, and Renoir returned to France.

In 1940, however, Renoir came to America at the behest of documentarian Robert Flaherty. His "American period" would be marked by a number of uneven films, but saw the production of at least two of great beauty and accomplishment. Renoir enjoyed modest success with his first American film, "Swamp Water" (1941), starring Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, John Carradine and Walter Brennan and filmed on location in Georgia. Meanwhile, however, his admirers in France had turned on him. At a crucial moment in his country's history, they complained, the director had "gone Hollywood." Disregarding the controversy for the moment, Renoir signed to shoot a Deanna Durbin musical, then abandoned the project nearly two-thirds of the way through shooting.

This misadventure was followed by "This Land Is Mine" (1943), a story of the French resistance shot entirely on studio sets, starring Charles Laughton, Kent Smith, George Sanders and Maureen O'Hara. The film did acceptable business in the US, but received a truly hostile reception in France. Renoir attempted to make amends with a 20-minute short, "Salute to France" (1944), which was produced by the Office of War Information from a script by Philip Dunne, Renoir and Burgess Meredith, who also acted in the film. Kurt Weill supplied the music for this well-intentioned effort, which did nothing to salvage Renoir's reputation at home, although it was well received in the US.

Renoir's next film was an independent production, "The Southerner" (1945), starring Zachary Scott, Betty Field, J. Carrol Naish and Percy Kilbride. Working with his old associate Eugene Lourie as set designer, Robert Aldrich as assistant director and William Faulkner as dialogue consultant, Renoir created one of his most satisfying American films, a tale of the trials and tribulations of an Southern cotton farmer. "The Southerner" received the best contemporary critical notices of any of its director's American efforts.

"The Diary of a Chambermaid" (1946) was a curious choice for Renoir, and the result was a highly uneven film. The cast included Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith (who also co-produced and co-authored the screenplay), Hurd Hatfield, Reginald Owen, Judith Anderson, Irene Ryan and Francis Lederer. Shot on severely stylized studio sets, the film is overtly theatrical and eschews almost entirely the style Renoir had so carefully developed in his early sound films of the 1930s.

Renoir's last American film, "The Woman on the Beach" (1947), was directed for RKO. He originally developed the idea for the film with producer Val Lewton, justly famous for his series of horror films for RKO in the 1940s. However, Lewton left the production before shooting commenced and the film was substantially cut before its release. At least two versions now circulate; the most complete edition begins with a long undersea nightmare sequence reminiscent of "La Fille de L'eau," in which the film's protagonists, Robert Ryan and Joan Bennett, encounter each other at the bottom of the ocean. Jacques Rivette, Manny Farber and other critics have hailed the film as a masterpiece. Mutilated as it is, it displays a maturity of vision equal to the precise grace of "The Rules of the Game" or "The Crime of Monsieur Lange." In truncated versions running as short as 71 minutes, the film is only a fragment of what it might have been, but Rivette has aptly compared it to Erich von Stroheim's "Greed" (1925).

Renoir's third and final period as a director begins with "The River" (1950), an independently produced film based on Rumer Godden's novel. Shot entirely in Calcutta, it won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1951. This relaxed and contemplative coming-of-age story, beautifully photographed in Technicolor, represents a return to the naturalism of Renoir's early work. "Le Carosse d'or/The Golden Coach" (1952) shares with "Diary of a Chambermaid" an intense interest in theatrical film style, and gave Anna Magnani one of her greatest roles as Camilla, the fiery diva of a traveling theater troupe. Though Eric Rohmer has called "Le Carosse d'or" "the 'open sesame' of all of Renoir's work," the film was not well received upon its initial release.

Renoir was unable to find backing for another film until "French Cancan" (1954, sometimes known in the US as "Only the French Can"), his first made in France in over 15 years. This valentine to the Moulin Rouge met with great public success and featured a number of French music hall performers in cameo roles, including a very brief appearance by Edith Piaf. "Elena et les hommes/Paris D s Strange Things" (1956) starred Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais and Mel Ferrer in another, lightweight love letter to a bygone age.

"Le Testament du Dr. Cordelier" (1959), though not regarded as one of Renoir's finest works, has him using multiple cameras for the first time, blocking the film as though it were a stage play in the manner now routinely used by TV sitcoms. Based on "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," the film stars Jean-Louis Barrault as Dr. Cordelier and his mad alter ego, Opale, and is shot in stark black-and-white, in contrast to the lush coloring of Renoir's other film of this final period.

"Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe/Picnic on the Grass" (1959) followed, a topical fantasy film which has much in common with "Une Partie de campagne." Shot in delicious pastel colors, the film is at once ephemeral and melancholic, as if the director were acknowledging his bewilderment in the face of the "civilizing" forces of modern society. "Le Caporal epingle/The Elusive Corporal "(1962) is a return to the drabness of "Le Testament du Dr. Cordelier;" it recalls "La Grande Illusion" in its WWII tale of the numerous escape attempts of a corporal (Jean-Pierre Cassel) who is incarcerated in a series of German prison camps.

In 1968, Renoir appeared in and directed a short film, "La Direction d'acteur par Jean Renoir" which shows him directing the actress Gisele Braunberger in a scene from a Rumer Godden novel, "Breakfast with Nicolaides." Shot in a half-day, the film's direction credit is sometimes given to Ms. Braunberger. The following year, Renoir directed his last feature, "Le Petit Theatre de Jean Renoir," which was released in 1971. Jeanne Moreau is featured in four sketches which Renoir wrote, directed and narrated for French TV; when released theatrically in the US, it was warmly received, even though it was far from the director's most accomplished work.

At last, the public had caught up with Jean Renoir. "The Rules of the Game" had long since been reconstituted and enshrined as one of the greatest films of all time, and its director was pleased to accept an honorary Oscar in 1975 for his lifetime achievement in the cinema. The year before, Renoir had completed his memoirs, "Ma Vie et mes Films/My Life and My Films," which contain valuable insights into the director's method of scripting, direction and his ability to retain a sense of "self" in a highly commercial and competitive industry. In 1977, Renoir received his final major honor, the French Legion of Honor.

Filmography

 

Director (Feature Film)

Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (1990)
Director
The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1969)
Director
Toni (1968)
Director
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1967)
Director
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1964)
Director
The Elusive Corporal (1963)
Director
Picnic on the Grass (1960)
Director
Elena and Her Men (1956)
Director
French Cancan (1955)
Director
The Golden Coach (1953)
Director
The River (1951)
Director
The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Director
The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
Director
The Southerner (1945)
Director
This Land Is Mine (1943)
Director
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
Director
Swamp Water (1941)
Director
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Director
La Bete Humaine (1938)
Director
La Marseillaise (1938)
Director
Grand Illusion (1937)
Director
The Lower Depths (1936)
Director
La Vie est a nous (1936)
Director
Toni (1936)
Director
Un Partie de Campagne (1936)
Director
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
Director
Madame Bovary (1934)
Director
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932)
Director
La Nuit du carrefour (1932)
Director
La Chienne (1931)
Director
On purge bebe (1931)
Director
Le Bled (1929)
Director
Tire-au-Flanc (1928)
Director
Le Tournoi dans la cite (1928)
Director
La Petite marchande d'allumettes (1928)
Director
Marquitta (1927)
Director
Nana (1926)
Director
Whirlpool of Fate (1925)
Director

Cast (Feature Film)

Vivement Truffaut! (1985)
The Christian Licorice Store (1971)
Himself
The Rules of the Game (1939)
La Bete Humaine (1938)
Un Partie de Campagne (1936)

Writer (Feature Film)

Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (1990)
Screenwriter
The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1969)
Screenwriter
Toni (1968)
Screenwriter
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1967)
Screenwriter
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1964)
Scenario
The Elusive Corporal (1963)
Screenwriter
The Elusive Corporal (1963)
Adaptation
Picnic on the Grass (1960)
Screenplay
Elena and Her Men (1956)
Writer (Dialogue)
Elena and Her Men (1956)
Writer (Adaptation)
Elena and Her Men (1956)
Screenplay
French Cancan (1955)
Screenwriter
The Golden Coach (1953)
Writer
The River (1951)
Screenwriter
The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Screenwriter
The Southerner (1945)
Screenwriter
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Writer (Dialogue)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Screenplay
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Writer (Adaptation)
La Bete Humaine (1938)
Writer (Dialogue)
La Marseillaise (1938)
Screenwriter
La Marseillaise (1938)
Dialogue
La Bete Humaine (1938)
Screenplay
Grand Illusion (1937)
Screenplay
The Lower Depths (1936)
Screenwriter
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
Story By
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
Screenwriter
Toni (1936)
Screenwriter
Toni (1936)
Dialogue
Un Partie de Campagne (1936)
Screenplay
La Vie est a nous (1936)
Screenwriter
Madame Bovary (1934)
Screenplay
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932)
Screenwriter
La Chienne (1931)
Screenwriter
La Petite marchande d'allumettes (1928)
Screenwriter
Tire-au-Flanc (1928)
Screenwriter

Producer (Feature Film)

French Cancan (1955)
Producer
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
Executive Producer
La Petite marchande d'allumettes (1928)
Producer
Nana (1926)
Producer
Whirlpool of Fate (1925)
Producer

Editing (Feature Film)

La Chienne (1931)
Editor
Nana (1926)
Editor

Music (Feature Film)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Composer

Art Director (Feature Film)

Whirlpool of Fate (1925)
Art Director

Production Companies (Feature Film)

The Southerner (1945)
Company
This Land Is Mine (1943)
Company

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Liberte (1989)
Other
The Man You Loved To Hate (1979)
Other

Life Events

1924

First film as producer, writer, actor and co-director "Catherine/Un Vie sans joie"

1924

Sole directing debut with "La Fille de l'eau"

1925

Opened art gallery

1926

Directed first Franco-German collaboration "Nana"

1929

Last silent film as director "Le Bled"

1931

Sound-film directing debut with "On purge Bebe"

1937

"La Grande Illusion" banned in Italy, Germany and Belgium

1938

Co-founded production company, La Nouvelle Edition Francaise to film "Les Caprices de Marianne;" bankrupt after one film

1939

"La Regle du jeu/The Rules of the Game" banned in Paris (ban reimposed during German occupation)

1940

Immigrated to US via Algiers, Casablanca and Lisbon

1941

Signed as director for one year by Darryl F Zanuck at Fox

1941

Ended Fox contract

1942

Signed long-term contract with Universal; asked for release after few days

1946

"Un Partie de Campagne/A Day in the Country" released (shot 1936)

1947

Last US film as director (for RKO) "The Woman on the Beach"

1951

First color film as director "The River"

1954

Stage directing debut with "Julius Caesar" ( 2,000th anniversary of Caesar's discovery of Arles, France where play was staged)

1955

Debut as playwright with "Orvet" (also directed; Paris)

1959

Television directing debut with "Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier/Experiment in Evil"

Photo Collections

Grand Illusion - Movie Poster
Here is the original release French movie poster for Grand Illusion (1937), directed by Jean Renoir and starring Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim.
La bete humaine - Movie Poster
Here is an original French poster for Jean Renoir's La bete humaine (1938), starring Jean Gabin and Simone Simon.

Videos

Movie Clip

Burglars, The (1971) -- (Movie Clip) It's Not A Ghost Ship At the port in Athens, their heist completed, the crew (Jean-Paul Belmondo as Arad, Robert Hossein as Ralph, Nicole Calfan as Helene and Renato Salvatori as Renzi) find their getaway boat missing, leading to inquiries and some cool shooting by cinematographer Claude Renoir (director Jean’s nephew) and director Henri Verneuil, in The Burglars 1971.
La Chienne (a.k.a. The Bitch) (1931) -- (Movie Clip) You Spoil Me, Darling Some time into their affair, far-from-wealthy bureaucrat LeGrand (Michel Simon) ends an evening with his mistress Lulu (Janie Parèse), sending her up to the apartment he pays for, furnished with his own paintings, still unaware that she’s giving his money to her boyfriend and de facto pimp Dèdè (Georges Flamant), in Jean Renoir’s La Chienne, a.k.a. The Bitch, 1931.
La Chienne (a.k.a. The Bitch) (1931) -- (Movie Clip) Men Are Such Bores Jean Renoir directing his second sound feature, at a Paris art-scene salon, prostitute Lulu (Janie Parèse), who’s posing as fictional Clara, a suddenly popular painter, in a dancing-fight with her pimp-partner Dèdè (Georges Flamant) works with cohorts Alexandre Rignault, Pierre Desty and Lucien Mancini to schmooze a new customer (Jean Gehret), in La Chienne, a.k.a. The Bitch, 1931.
La Chienne (a.k.a. The Bitch) (1931) -- (Movie Clip) You Call That Passion? Following his first meeting with Paris streetwalker Lulu, cashier LeGrand (Michel Simon), known around his office as a boring fellow with a domineering wife, returns home to her (Madeleine Berubet), angered over his timing and his painting hobby, in director Jean Renoir’s celebrated second sound feature, La Chienne, a.k.a. The Bitch, 1931.
La Chienne (a.k.a. The Bitch) (1931) -- (Movie Clip) Get Your Claws In This Guy From director Jean Renoir, shooting on location in Paris, the first scene (following an earlier introduction) for Lulu (Janie Marèse) and Dèdè (Georges Flamant), meeting LeGrand (Michel Simon), the notoriously dull guy who chose not to attend the after-party following a company banquet, early in La Chienne, a.k.a. The Bitch, 1931.
La Chienne (a.k.a. The Bitch) (1931) -- (Movie Clip) Open, A Stirring Social Drama The opening credits to Jean Renoir’s sensational second sound feature (he first made a quick farcical comedy, to show producers his ability with the new medium), then a framing device, using puppets to introduce his stars, Michel Simon, Janie Marese and Georges Flamant, in La Chienne, a.k.a. The Bitch, 1931.
La Bete Humaine (1938) -- (Movie Clip) I Don't Want People Looking At Me! A train, of all things, interrupts engineer Lantier (Jean Gabin) when he gets carried away, while visiting hometown sweetheart Flore (Blanchette Brunoy), in Jean Renoir's La Bete Humaine, 1938.
Rules Of The Game (1939) -- (Movie Clip) Mingling Of Two Whims The radio report of her flier-boyfriend's proclamation of love still playing in the background, Christine (Nora Gregor) visits her unfazed husband the Marquis (Marcel Dalio), who then rings his mistress (Mila Parely), gossip continuing, early in Jean Renoir's Rules Of The Game, 1939.
Rules Of The Game (1939) -- (Movie Clip) I Did All This For Her Opening scenes, radio reporter (Lise Eline) chasing Lindbergh-y hero Andre' (Roland Toutain) on his landing in Paris, greeted by friend Octave (Jean Renoir, the director), his beloved Christine (Nora Gregor) listening, with her maid (Paulette Dubost), from Rules Of The Game, 1939.
Grand Illusion (1937) -- (Movie Clip) All Your Old French Stock Observing drills in the courtyard, dividing up care packages, French POW's Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), de Boldieu (Pierre Fresnay), Marechal (Jean Gabin) et al reflecting on their circumstances, a famous scene from Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, 1937.
Grand Illusion (1937) -- (Movie Clip) May The Earth Lie Gently Second scene, German Captain Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) returns from a sortie, announcing he expects French officers de Boldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Marechal (Jean Gabin), introduced in the first scene, to arrive, in Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, 1937.
Grand Illusion (1937) -- (Movie Clip) A Real Girl! Dumping dirt from their tunnel diggings, French POW officer de Boldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Marechal (Jean Gabin), who joins fellow non-comms enjoying the womens' clothing provided for their theatrical project, in Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, 1937.

Trailer

Family

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Father
Impressionist painter. Fathered Jean aged 53, died 1919.
Aline Charigot
Mother
Had four children with Pierre-Auguste, died mid-1910s from diabetes.
Pierre Renoir
Brother
Actor. Appeared in "La Marseillaise".
Marie-Louise Iribe
Sister-In-Law
Actor. Pierre's wife, appeared in "Marquitta".
Claude Renoir
Nephew
Cinematographer. Worked with Jean.
Claude Renoir
Brother
Assistant director, production manager. Jean's junior; worked on Jean's films.
Alain Renoir
Son
Actor, professor (University of California at Berkeley). Born 1921, appeared in "Partie de campagne/A Day in the Country".

Companions

Andree Heuschling
Wife
Painter's model, actor. Married January 1920, divorced 1930, worked for Pierre-Auguste, appeared in "Catherine," "La Fille de l'eau," "Nana," "Sur un air de Charleston," "La Petite Marchande d'allumettes".
Marguerite Houlle
Companion
Film editor, actor. Appeared in "Partie de campagne/A Day in the Country," relationship with Jean ended late 1930s.
Dido Freire
Wife
Secretary, continuity assistant. Married February 1944, Alberto Cavalcanti's niece.

Bibliography

"Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise"
Ronald Bergan, Overlook Press (1995)
"Le Crime de l'anglais"
Jean Renoir (1979)
"Geneveive"
Jean Renoir (1979)
"Le Coeur a l'aise"
Jean Renoir (1978)
"Ma vie et ses films"
Jean Renoir (1974)
"Les Cahier du Capitaine Georges"
Jean Renoir (1966)
"Renoir/Renoir My Father"
Jean Renoir (1962)