Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir Frenchnwa September 1894 February 1979 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 Grand 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 BFIs Sight amp Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors 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 PierreAuguste Renoir.

Renoir was largely raised by Gabrielle Renard, his nanny and his mothers cousin, with whom he developed a strong bond. Shortly before his birth, she had come to live with the Renoir family. She introduced the young boy to the Guignol puppet shows in Montmartre, which influenced his later film career. He wrote in his 1974 memoirs My Life and My Films, She taught me to see the face behind the mask and the fraud behind the flourishes. She taught me to detest the clich. Gabrielle was also fascinated by the new motionpicture invention, and when Renoir was only a few years old she took him to see his first film.As a child, Renoir moved to the south of France with his family. He and the rest of the Renoir family were the subjects of many of his fathers paintings. His fathers financial success ensured that the young Renoir was educated at fashionable boarding schools, from which, as he later wrote, he frequently ran away. ........

Source: Wikipedia