Companion to Jean Renoir

Alastair Phillips is Reader in Film Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of Rififi (2009), and City of Darkness, City of Light: Émigré Filmmakers in Paris 1929-1939 (2004). He is co-author of 100 Film Noirs (2009) and co-editor, with Ginette Vincendeau, of Journeys of Desire: European Actors in Hollywood (2006) as well as, with Julian Stringer, of Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts (2007).Ginette Vincendeau is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London, UK. Among her books are Jean Gabin: anatomie d’un mythe, with Claude Gauteur (1993, 2006), Pépé le Moko (1998), Stars and Stardom in French Cinema (2000), Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris (2003), and La Haine (2005). She co-edited Journeys of Desire: European Actors in Hollywood (2006) and The New French Wave: Critical Landmarks (2009).

• Notes on Contributors viiiAcknowledgments xvNotes on the Text xviiIntroduction: Renoir In and Out of His Time 1Alastair Phillips and Ginette VincendeauPart I Renoir in Close-Up 13Section 1 Reassessing Renoir’s Aesthetics 151 Shooting in Deep Time: The Mise en Scène of History in Renoir’s Films of the 1930s 16Martin O’Shaughnessy2 The Exception and the Norm: Relocating Renoir’s Sound and Music 35Charles O’Brien3 The Invention of French Talking Cinema: Language in Renoir’s Early Sound Films 53Michel Marie4 Renoir and His Actors: The Freedom of Puppets 72Christophe Damour5 Design at Work: Renoir’s Costume Dramas of the 1950s 88Susan HaywardSection 2 Critical Focus on Selected Films 1076 Sur un air de Charleston, Nana, La Petite Marchande d’allumettes, Tire au flanc: Renoir and the Ethics of Play 108Anne M. Kern7 La Grande Illusion: Sound, Silence, and the Displacement of Emotion 121Valerie Orpen8 La Bête humaine: Double Murder at the Station at Le Havre 131Olivier Curchod9 La Règle du jeu: Lies, Truth, and Irresolution (A Critical Round Table) 144Christopher Faulkner, Martin O’Shaughnessy, and V. F. Perkins10 The River: Beneath the Surface with André Bazin 166Prakash YoungerPart II Renoir: The Wider View 177Section 1 Renoir’s Filmmaking and the Arts 17911 Seeing with His Own Eyes: Renoir and Photography 180Alastair Phillips12 Popular Songs in Renoir’s Films of the 1930s 199Kelley Conway13 Renoir and the Popular Theater of His Time 219Geneviève Sellier14 Theatricality and Spectacle in La Règle du jeu, Le Carrosse d’or, and Éléna et les hommes 237Thomas Elsaesser15 French Cancan: A Song and Dance about Women 255Ginette Vincendeau16 Social Roles/Political Responsibilities: The Evolving Figure of the Artist in Renoir’s Films, 1928–1939 270Charles MusserSection 2 Renoir’s Place in the Critical Canon 29117 Seeing through Renoir, Seen through Bazin 292Dudley Andrew18 Henri Agel’s Cinema of Contemplation: Renoir and Philosophy 313Sarah Cooper19 Renoir and the French Communist Party: The Grand Disillusion 328Laurent Marie20 “Better than a Masterpiece”: Revisiting the Reception of La Règle du jeu 347Claude Gauteur21 Renoir and the French New Wave 356Richard Neupert22 Renoir between the Public, the Professors, and the Polls 375Ian ChristiePart III Renoir, a National and a Transnational Figure 395Section 1 Renoir, the Chronicler of French Society 39723 Renoir under the Popular Front: Aesthetics, Politics, and the Paradoxes of Engagement 398Brett Bowles24 The Performance of History in La Marseillaise 425Tom Brown25 Toni: A Regional Melodrama of Failed Masculinity 444Keith Reader26 La Règle du jeu: A Document of French Everyday Life 454Christopher Faulkner27 Renoir’s Jews in Context 474Maureen TurimSection 2 Renoir, the Transnational Figure 49328 Renoir’s War 494Julian Jackson29 Interconnected Sites of Struggle: Resituating Renoir’s Career in Hollywood 514Elizabeth Vitanza30 The Southerner: Touching Relationships 533Edward Gallafent31 The Woman on the Beach: Renoir’s Dark Lady 544Jean-Loup Bourget32 Remaking Renoir in Hollywood 555Lucy MazdonFilmography 572Select Bibliography 585Index 592

“Phillips and Vincendeau’s volume is intelligently organized, extremely comprehensive, and generously illustrated with images from many of the films.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionanls.”  (Choice, 1 January 2014)