Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise

Ronald Bergan

ISBN 10: 0879516089 / ISBN 13: 9780879516086

Published by Overlook TP, 1995

About this Item

So many pyramids of acclaim have been built around Jean Renoir, director of Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, and The River, that the man and his films often seem removed and sterile. But Renoir was a real entertainer as well as a major filmmaker; poignancy and comedy were of equal importance to him. Throwing off the shackles of austerity, Ronald Bergen has written an intimate biography of the filmmaker. He recounts the details of Renoir's event-filled life in an easy, fluid style that makes this book easy to devour and hard to put down. Paperback - 1995 - good condition - - used books, secondhand books, out of print books, hard to find books, for sale, second-hand books, college books, student books, nonfiction, first edition, signed copies, non-fiction books delivered world wide. From 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. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Seller Inventory # 16047

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise
• Publisher: Overlook TP
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879516089
• ISBN 13: 9780879516086
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Used: Acceptable
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biography

About this title

Synopsis

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.

Review

The ideal Renoir biography easy, graceful, and unpretentious.” Los Angeles Times Book Review

Substantial, well-researched . . . Ronald Bergan creates a detailed, affectionate portrait vividly realized.” Observer

Bergan has written a book that reads as well at the beach as it will in film class.” Newsday (New York)

[Bergan] painstakingly chronicles the plots and makings of Renoir’s oeuvre . . . purely biographical and enjoyable. ”
The New York Times Book Review