Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His ''La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and ''The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. In 2002, he was ranked fourth on the BFI's ''Sight & Sound'' poll of the greatest directors. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the uncle of the cinematographer Claude Renoir. With Claude, he made ''The River'' (1951), the first color film shot in India. A lifelong lover of theater, Renoir turned to the stage for ''The Golden Coach'' (1952) and ''French Cancan'' (1955). He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an ''auteur''; the critic Penelope Gilliatt said a Renoir shot could be identified "in a thousand miles of film."

Pauline Kael wrote that "At his greatest, Jean Renoir expresses the beauty in our common humanity—the desires and hopes, the absurdities and follies, that we all, to one degree or another, share." Per ''The New York Times'': "The style that ran through Mr. Renoir's films — a mixture of tenderness, irony and Gallic insouciance‐was caught in a famous line from his 1939 masterpiece, ''The Rules of the Game.'' It was spoken by Octave, played by the director himself: 'You see, in this world, there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.'” Provided by Wikipedia