French-born Jean Renoir (1894-1979) directed two of the twentieth century's most critically acclaimed films, La Grande Illusion and La Regle du jeu (Rules of the Game), and is credited with inspiring the subsequent film noir and French New Wave cinematic movements.

The son of Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir today seems predestined to become one of film's most visually compelling directors. While mastering such signature visual styles as deep focus for the respective mise-en-scenes of his body of work, Renoir's reputation is for his films that depict "life as a tissue of disappointments," in which the boundaries of human comedy and tragedy seamlessly overlap. Rather than offer subjective moral observations of his characters, however, Renoir held firmly to the dictum that "Everyone has their reasons," which freed him from exploring character motivations and the inevitable long-term results of their actions. Instead, his films force the viewer...