Renoir, << REHN wahr or ruh NWAHR, >> Jean (1894-1979), was a French motion-picture director whose films expose human faults and ridicule social attitudes. They also show compassion for people and their failings. Renoir also acted in a number of his films.
Renoir directed 36 films, including 2 of the most acclaimed movies ever made. One of them, Grand Illusion (1937), attacks the futility of war. The other, The Rules of the Game (1939), satirizes relationships among upper-class people at a weekend house party.
Renoir’s first film was A Life Without Joy (1924). His other films include Nana (1926), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1935), Toni (1935), and La Bête Humaine (1938). His last film, The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1970), was made for French television.
Renoir was born in Paris on Sept. 15, 1894. His father was the French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir. After World War II began in 1939, Jean Renoir fled France. He settled in the United States in 1941. Renoir made several films in the United States, including Swamp Water (1941) and The Southerner (1945). He became a U.S. citizen in 1944. He died on Feb. 12, 1979.
