Claude Renoir
Encyclopedia
Claude Renoir was a French
cinematographer
. He was the son of actor Pierre Renoir
and nephew of director Jean Renoir
. He was also the grandson of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir
. He is the father of actress Sophie Renoir
.
Renoir was born in Paris
, son of actor Pierre Renoir
and actress Véra Sergine. He apprenticed to Boris Kaufman
. He worked on numerous critically acclaimed pictures such as Monsieur Vincent
(1947), Jean Renoir's The River
(1951), Roger Vadim
's Barbarella
(1968), Cleopatra
(1963) and The Spy Who Loved Me
(1977). He also participated in the making of The Mystery of Picasso
(1956), the famous documentary on painter Pablo Picasso
. He was the cinematographer for The Crucible (1957) and lived in East Germany during filming. Renoir's career came to a close in late 1970s, as he was rapidly losing sight. In his final years he was largely blind
.
He married twice and had two children, a son and a daughter, actress Sophie Renoir
. He died at age 79 in Troyes
, 55 miles east of Paris, near the village of Essoyes, where he had a home.
Renoir sometimes worked on the same films as his uncle and namesake Claude Renoir ainé (senior), and many reference sources (including IMDB) combine the career credts of the two men as if they were one.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
. He was the son of actor Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor and served briefly as the director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, taking over after the death of Louis Jouvet in 1951....
and nephew of director Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir 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...
. He was also the grandson of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
. He is the father of actress Sophie Renoir
Sophie Renoir
Sophie Renoir is a French actress. She is the great-granddaughter of noted French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In 1988, she was nominated for César Award for Most Promising Actress, for her part in Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric Rohmer...
.
Renoir was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, son of actor Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor and served briefly as the director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, taking over after the death of Louis Jouvet in 1951....
and actress Véra Sergine. He apprenticed to Boris Kaufman
Boris Kaufman
Boris Abelevich Kaufman, A.S.C. was a cinematographer. He was the younger brother of famous filmmakers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman....
. He worked on numerous critically acclaimed pictures such as Monsieur Vincent
Monsieur Vincent
Monsieur Vincent is a 1947 French film about Vincent de Paul, the seventeenth century priest and charity worker. It depicts his struggle to help the poor in the face of obstacles such as the Black Death....
(1947), Jean Renoir's The River
The River (1951 film)
The River is a 1951 film directed by Jean Renoir. It was filmed in India and was seminal to the launching of the careers of Satyajit Ray , who assisted on the film, and Subrata Mitra, Ray's cinematographer whom he met during the filming of The River.A fairly faithful dramatization of an earlier...
(1951), Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
's Barbarella
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
(1968), Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
(1963) and The Spy Who Loved Me
The Spy Who Loved Me (film)
The Spy Who Loved Me is a spy film, the tenth film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum...
(1977). He also participated in the making of The Mystery of Picasso
The Mystery of Picasso
The Mystery of Picasso is a 1956 French documentary film about the painter Pablo Picasso. It shows Picasso in the act of creating paintings for the camera...
(1956), the famous documentary on painter Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. He was the cinematographer for The Crucible (1957) and lived in East Germany during filming. Renoir's career came to a close in late 1970s, as he was rapidly losing sight. In his final years he was largely blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
.
He married twice and had two children, a son and a daughter, actress Sophie Renoir
Sophie Renoir
Sophie Renoir is a French actress. She is the great-granddaughter of noted French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In 1988, she was nominated for César Award for Most Promising Actress, for her part in Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric Rohmer...
. He died at age 79 in Troyes
Troyes
Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
, 55 miles east of Paris, near the village of Essoyes, where he had a home.
Renoir sometimes worked on the same films as his uncle and namesake Claude Renoir ainé (senior), and many reference sources (including IMDB) combine the career credts of the two men as if they were one.
Reference
External links
- Claude Renoir, 79, A Cinematographer With a Painter's Eye, obituary in The New York Times, by Eric Pace