Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir 15 September 1894 12 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 As an author he wrote the definitive biography of his father the painter PierreAuguste Renoir Renoir My Father 1962 In the 1930s Renoir was associated with the Popular Front and several of his films reflect the movements leftwing politics and deal with social issues as well as class disparities He was perhaps the most significant director of the poetic realism movement The satirical comedydrama film The Rules of the Game 1939 is often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made it is the only film to earn a place among the top ten films in the respected British Film Institutes Sight Sound decennial critics poll for every decade from the polls inception in 1952 through the 2012 list Other important works are Grand Illusion 1937 A Day in the Country 1946 and The River 1951 Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema Directors and Directions 19291968 included him in the pantheon of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States