Jean Renoir

             (1894-1979)

Jean Renoir is a French film director. He released more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s, including La Grande Illusion (1937), La Bête Humaine (1938), Le Journal d’une femme de chambre (1946) and French Cancan (1954).

Renoir was born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France. Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he began to make movies; he wanted to make a star of her. He left France in 1941 during the German invasion of France during World War II and became a naturalized US citizen.

He went on to contribute significant works, eventually receiving a lifetime Academy Award for his contribution to the motion picture industry. In 1962, he wrote the definitive biography of his father, Renoir, My Father.

Presenting three Technicolor and one Eastmancolor spectacles from the artist, the festival, Renoir in Technicolor (4-26, May) at ArtsEmerson encapsulates a vibrant period in the career of cinema’s consummate humanist.

For more information, click here.