Renoir directed by Gilles Bourdos (French with subtitles) is a film infused with the landscapes and radiant light of the Côte d’Azur. It is a nostalgic look at the great French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s (Michel Bouquet) last years at “Les Collettes”, a farm at Cagnes-sur-mer. Renoir’s friend Henri Matisse had suggested that 15 year- old Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret) go to work at “Les Collettes”, where Renoir was living. She did, becoming Renoir’s muse. He would immortalized her on canvas as the ‘the nude with the flame coloured hair’.

Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling and Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir in RENOIR; Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was renowned for his use of light, saturated colour and his ability to capture the romance of daily life. He celebrated feminine beauty, especially feminine sensuality and the female nude. At 74 he was an arthritic invalid, wheelchair bound but still very much determined to paint. Renoir’s arthritis was so severe that he has his brushes strapped to his paralyzed fingers.

Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Jean Renoir (Vincent Rottiers), Renoir’s son returned to convalesce at home and also fell under the sensual spell of the radiant Andrée. Jean was inexperienced with women and Andrée soon became his lover, muse and then wife. This union empowered young Jean to the engage in a life of cinema. Jean Renoir became a brilliant innovative filmmaker ushering in an era of neo-realism (Toni, 1935; The Grand Illusion, 1937; The Rules of the Game, 1939; The River, 1951).

Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling and Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Renoir was presented at the closing night of the “Un Certain Regard” selection at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, France a city well renowned for its porcelain, where he blossomed as a painter of fine china. He later enrolled in art school in Paris and often visited Le Louvre to study the French Master painters.

Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling and Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Three reasons to love the movie Renoir:

The Director 

Gilles Boudros has a wonderful ability to create a pictorial work of light, color, art and life, with visuals that are somewhere between film and painting. The opening sequence is spell binding; young Andree on a bike, swirling along in a dress of vibrant colors, a visual hymn to beauty. Boudros conveys with intensity Renoir, the very old, frail man confined to his wheelchair, battling his infirmities, determined to commit what he sees in his mind’s eye to canvas. Brushes attached to hands with pieces of cloth, continuing to create unbelievable masterpieces.

Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling and Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The Actors:

Michel Bouquet (Auguste Renoir) gives a stellar performance; he is a striking physical match for Renoir and gracefully balances between the artist’s grumpy weaknesses and his strong appetite for life. He ignites the screen with a strong presence even confined to a wheelchair, his economy of gesture, the strength of a glance, a raised eyebrow.  

Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir and Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Vincent Rottiers (Jean Renoir) is the young man who has grown up in the shadows of a legendary father. Rottiers conveys the special feeling of tenderness but also the sense of miscommunication between the son and his famous father. 

Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir and Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling in RENOIR; Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret) symbolizes the radiance of youth; sweeping away every obstacle in her path. She does not form friendships with the other women in Renoir’s house and is in certain ways unrefined. Theret is at ease with her on screen nudity for the role. The ensemble cast has a resonating chemistry.

Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir in RENOIR - Photo Credit - Fidelite Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The Magical Setting:

The Riviera, the landscape that inspired so many great masters like Signac, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Matisse. They all came and fell in love with the exquisite beauty of the French Mediterranean landscape. Not only painters came and felt in love with the French Riviera, but everyone else: writers, poets, sculptors - Emile Zola, Sommerset Maugham, Edith Wharton and many more came to work, to socialize and to live.

Christophe Chanel