Jean Renoir was born in 1894, son of the illustrious painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  As a young man, he studied mathematics and philosophy.  Later, he served in the cavalry and as a pilot during the First World War. 

After the war, Renoir was free to develop his own artistic capabilities.  For several years, he made ceramics with his brother Claude, before embarking on a film-making career.  He made his first film in 1924, Catherine, using money from the sale of his father’s paintings.  This film, and a number of those which followed, starred Renoir’s beautiful young wife (and his father’s former model),  Andrée Heuschling, better known by her stage name Catherine Hessling.

Renoir’s early silent films were experimental works, including bold streaks of fantasy and neo-realism, such as La Fille de l’eau (1924) and La Petite marchande d’allumettes (1928).   Whilst some of these films are genuine achievements, it is only in the 1930s that Renoir showed his true genius as a film maker, creating some of the finest films of the Twentieth Century.  Among Renoir’s greatest works are La Grande illusion (1937), La Bête humaine (1938) and La Règle de jeu (1939).  The latter film, seen as a flagrant attack on the ruling classes, was not well received and was hastily withdrawn, only to be reinstated as a monumental classic in the 1960s.   La Règle de jeu has often been cited as the greatest film ever made.

In the 1940s, before the Nazi occupation of France, Renoir moved to the United States where he signed a one-year contract with 20th Century Fox.  Here, he directed some of his most visually stunning films, including The Swamp and This Land is Mine.  His first colour film was The River, which was made in India after his stay in America. In 1952, Renoir returned to Europe and profitable film-making with such successes as La Carosse d’or and the instantly popular French cancan. 

Although still highly regarded as a director, Renoir’s later films were more modest affairs, and less successful.  His final film-making projects were abandoned because he was unable to get backing.  Instead, he turned his attention to literature, writing a well-received biography of his father.  Renoir was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1977 and died at his home in California in 1979.

Jean Renoir remains one of the most highly regarded of film directors, a creative genius whose films reveal an exceptional humanity and encompass a remarkable range (farce, satire, tragedy, policier, classic literature, history...).  His auteurist approach to film-making has inspired generations of independent film makers, most notably the New Wave directors of the 1960s.  Chaplin described Jean Renoir as the greatest director in the world – a sentiment which many film enthusiasts share.

© James Travers 2002
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