Claude Renoir

Last updated
Claude Renoir
BornClaude André Henri Renoir  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
4 December 1913  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
8th arrondissement of Paris   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Died5 September 1993  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (aged 79)
Troyes   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Occupation Cinematographer, producer  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Parent(s)

Claude Renoir (December 4, 1913 [1] September 5, 1993) was a French cinematographer. He was the son of actor Pierre Renoir, the grandson of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and the nephew of director Jean Renoir.

Contents

Career

He was born in Paris, his mother being actress Véra Sergine. He was apprenticed to Boris Kaufman, a brother of Dziga Vertov, who much later worked in the United States on such films as On the Waterfront (1954). Renoir was the lighting cameraman on numerous pictures such as Monsieur Vincent (1947), Jean Renoir's The River (1951), Cleopatra (1963), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968), John Frankenheimer's French Connection II (1975), and the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). At the time of Claude Renoir's death, The Times of London wrote of The River that "its exquisite evocation of the Indian scene, helped to inaugurate a new era in the cinema, one in which color was finally accepted as a medium fit for great film makers to work in." [2]

He also participated in the making of The Mystery of Picasso (1956), the documentary on painter Pablo Picasso directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. He was the cinematographer for The Crucible (1957) and lived in East Germany during filming. [3] Renoir's career came to a close in the late 1970s, as he was rapidly losing his sight. In his final years he was largely blind.

Personal life

He married twice and had two children, a son and a daughter, actress Sophie Renoir. Claude Renoir died at age 79 in Troyes, 55 miles east of Paris, near the village of Essoyes, where he had a home.

Selected filmography

filmyear
Toni 1935
Lights of Paris 1938
Serenade 1940
Jericho 1946
The Ideal Couple 1946
Dilemma of Two Angels 1948
Doctor Laennec 1949
Madame Butterfly 1954
A Missionary 1955
One Life 1958
Blood and Roses 1960
The Lovers of Teruel 1962
Paris When It Sizzles 1964
Marco the Magnificent 1965
La Grande Vadrouille 1966
Barbarella 1968
The Adventurers 1970
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun 1970
Une femme fidèle 1976
The Spy Who Loved Me 1977

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Truffaut</span> French film director (1932–1984)

François Roland Truffaut was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. With a career of more than 25 years, he is an icon of the French film industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of France</span> Filmmaking industry in France

French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Caron</span> French and American actress and dancer (born 1931)

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French and American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre-Auguste Renoir</span> French painter and sculptor (1841–1919)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montmartre</span> Hill in the north of Paris, France

Montmartre is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is 130 m (430 ft) high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its artistic history, for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, and as a nightclub district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Renoir</span> French film director and screenwriter (1894–1979)

Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the motion picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the uncle of the cinematographer Claude Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur.

<i>The Rules of the Game</i> 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir

The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, Pierre Magnier and Renoir.

Renoir is a surname, a phonetic corruption of the French surname, "Renouard."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croissy-sur-Seine</span> Commune in Île-de-France, France

Croissy-sur-Seine is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is a suburban town on the western outskirts of Paris. Many expatriates reside in Croissy, given as it is the site of The British School of Paris, one of the top ten private international schools in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Renoir</span> French actor (1885–1952)

Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor. He was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and elder brother of the film director Jean Renoir. He is also noted for being the first actor to play Georges Simenon's character Inspector Jules Maigret in Night at the Crossroads, directed by his brother.

Claude Autant-Lara was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. His career was frequently marked by controversy, and in his late 80s he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for the far-right French National Front.

Jacques Becker was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led the French New Wave movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Félix Pissarro</span> French painter

Félix Pissarro was a nineteenth-century French painter, etcher and caricaturist of Portuguese-Jewish descent. Known as Titi in his family circle, he was the third son of the painter Camille and Julie Pissarro.

Events from the year 1993 in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilles Bourdos</span>

Gilles Bourdos is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his atmospheric cinema, which uses troubling themes in contrast with strong aesthetic imagery. He was one of the founders of the French production company Persona Films which produced most of his early work. Bourdos often collaborates with filmmaker Michel Spinosa, cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin and musician Alexandre Desplat.

Sophie Renoir is a French actress. She is the great-granddaughter of the French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), and daughter of the cinematographer Claude Renoir (1913–1993), granddaughter of actors Pierre Renoir and Véra Sergine, and grand-niece of film director Jean Renoir.

Claude Ruiz Picasso was a French photographer, cinematographer, film director, visual artist, graphic designer, and businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aline Charigot</span> Wife and model of Auguste Renoir, 1859-1915

Aline Victorine Charigot was a model for Auguste Renoir and later became his wife while continuing to model for him and then caring for him when he became disabled. She is pictured in many of his paintings over very many years, most famously in the early 1880s Luncheon of the Boating Party, and Blonde Bather. They had three children together, two of whom, Pierre and Jean, went on to have distinguished careers in film, and the third, Claude, became a ceramic artist. Pierre had a son Claude who became the well-known cinematographer. She predeceased her elderly husband.

<i>Blond Girl with a Rose</i> Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Blond Girl with a Rose is a late work period (1892–1919) oil painting executed in 1915–1917 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and held in the collection of the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. The painting portrays Renoir's last model, the teenaged Catherine Hessling, who featured in several of his paintings during his final few years. She went on to marry Renoir's second son Jean in 1920 and become a film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Véra Sergine</span> French actress

Véra Sergine was a French actress. She was married to actor Pierre Renoir and was the mother of cinematographer Claude Renoir.

References

  1. Some sources, such as Ginette Vincendeau's Encyclopedia of European Cinema, London: Cassell/BFI, 1995, p.328 indicate 1914 as his year of birth
  2. see Eric Pace "Claude Renoir, 79, A Cinematographer With a Painter's Eye", New York Times, 13 September 1993
  3. Signoret, Simone (1978). Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be. Harper & Row. p. 139. ISBN   0-06-013986-2.