Jean Renoir
Projections of Paradise
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Now back in print, the definitive biography of a seminal figure in film history, whom Orson Welles called “the greatest of all directors.”
Jean Renoir’s career almost spans the history years of cinema–from the early silent movies, to the naturalism of the talkies, committed cinema, film noir, Hollywood studio productions, the Technicolor-period comedies and fast television techniques. His film The Grand Illusion remains one of the greatest movies about the effects of war.
Decades after its release, Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939) is the only film to have been included on every top ten list in the Sight & Sound's respected decennial poll since 1952, cementing Renoir’s influence. André Bazin and François Truffaut praised Renoir as the patron saint of the French New Wave.
Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise gives detailed accounts of Renoir’s working methods and captivating appraisals of his films, and his long and fascinating life from his blissful childhood as the son of the great Impressionist painter August Renoir. This is a must-read for students of film and all fans of entertaining, timeless movies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jean Renoir (1894-1979), a ceramicist turned filmmaker, married Catherine Hessling--the vivacious model who had cared for his ailing father, Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir--and made her the star of his films. In this impressive critical biography, written with the cooperation of the director's son Alain, Catherine is portrayed as an unloving, vengeful, sexually cold mate who hated being a mother. This revealing portrait traces Renoir's support of the French Communist Party, his escape from Nazi-occupied France in 1940 with Dido Freire, who became his second wife, his trying years in Hollywood, where he was treated as a novice or a spoiled brat, and his return to France and his cultural roots. Bergan, coauthor of Faber Companion to Foreign Films , deftly illuminates Renoir's fluent, compassionate, poetic naturalism. Photos.
