Renoir on Renoir: Interviews, Essays, and Remarks

by Jean Renoir, Carol Volk (Translator)

Renoir on Renoir is a 1990 collection of essays by, and interviews of, the legendary filmmaker Jean Renoir, who created such classics as The Grand Illusion, The River and The Rules of the Game. Renoir's career in cinema, which straddled the transition from silent film to the talkies, has influenced a subsequent generation of filmmakers. Between 1954 and 1967, Renoir was interviewed by such eminent filmmakers and theorists as Jacques Rivette, Francois Truffaut and Jacques Becker. The interviews were originally recorded and published in the distinguished French film review Cahiers du Cinéma, and shown on French television. They are an engaging account of Renoir's deep commitment to his chosen profession. Providing additional information on his ideas and theories on screen writing and directing, Renoir's essays also include lively anecdotes of the genesis and evolution of each of his films. They reveal behind-the-scenes of some of the masterpieces of French cinema.

Genres: Film

301 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 1990

About the author

Jean Renoir (September 15, 1894 - February 12, 1979) was a film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author.

He was the second son of Aline Charigot and the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Jean was also the brother of Pierre Renoir, a noted French stage and film actor; the uncle of Claude Renoir, a cinematographer; and the father of Alain Renoir, late professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of California at Berkeley.

As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. As an author, he wrote the definitive biography of his father, Renoir, My Father (1962).

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

'A film must be completed by the audience ... I think that one of the ingredients for success is to have a lot to say, to have too much to say, so that you do say it, but you don't say it all. There are certain parts that you cannot manage to formulate, that you forget, or for which you simply can't find the words, the terms, the camera movements, the lighting, or the right expressions for the actor to express it. The truth is that a film is as many films as it has viewers. If there are a thousand viewers, you have a thousand films, if it's a good film.' -Jean Renoir

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of transcriptions of interviews with Renoir, mostly made by Cahiers de Cinema in the 50s and 60s. There is a fair amount of repetition, but they provide insight into his choices on directing and subject matter, particularly for the great movies he made in the 1930s. A good complement to this book is his memoir, My Life and My Films, which covers some of the same ground but adds much personal detail.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of interviews and remarks by Jean Renoir, one of my favorite filmmakers.
He is quite lucid about his films and how he made them. You get the sense that he was very easy to work with; actors loved him.
The book is easy to read and will make you want to see his films all over again , or, if you are really lucky, to see then for the first time. A good one to start with is Grand Illusion. Have fun!