Renoir Reviews
Harlequin68
Super Reviewer
April 8, 2013
It is one thing to be told Jean Renoir's father was a great painter; it is another to see their relationship dramatized in the engaging biopic "Renoir" which also allows us to trace the father's influence on the son. That especially includes the bucolic scenes the father took great enjoyment in capturing for all eternity on his canvas in his own long gone oasis that we first glimpse as Andree effortlessly glides on her bicycle in orange. With mortality just lurking beneath the surface, this is also a time of transition, not only about generations, but also involving technology. The only significant problem with the movie is that it is too long, forcing a traditional narrative arc, instead of letting the material unfurl naturally.
In 1915, Andree Heuschling(Christa Theret) takes a job as a model for famed painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir(Michel Bouquet). Instead of giving the old man a heart attack, his painting thrives again. Just as Andree considers herself a jack of all arts, Renoir's pre-teen son Claude(Thomas Doret) misunderstands, asking to see her breasts to which she flatly declines. As a consolation prize, he does get to see his brother Jean's(Vincent Rottiers) wound when he comes back from the war.
It is one thing to be told Jean Renoir's father was a great painter; it is another to see their relationship dramatized in the engaging biopic "Renoir" which also allows us to trace the father's influence on the son. That especially includes the bucolic scenes the father took great enjoyment in capturing for all eternity on his canvas in his own long gone oasis that we first glimpse as Andree effortlessly glides on her bicycle in orange. With mortality just lurking beneath the surface, this is also a time of transition, not only about generations, but also involving technology. The only significant problem with the movie is that it is too long, forcing a traditional narrative arc, instead of letting the material unfurl naturally.
May 5, 2013
I am no fan of Renoir the painter, especially of his earlier jolly figures, (although I very much like Renoir the film maker, his son). Yet, I was surprised by how much I liked this film about father and son and their muse. It is a slow moving, quiet and visually stunning film. The cinematography is outstanding. A sensuously vivid experience. a final treat, Renoir's paintings shown in the film were made by an expert forger right out of prison, I believe.
May 4, 2013
This is a good but not great film. There were some moments that lack meaning and boy did some of the subtitles move quick. Christa Theret's stare is mesmerizing and makes it all worth it.
May 4, 2013
All the lushness of the French Riviera cannot compensate for a badly written film. I am not a fan of M. Renoir, however I feel the story of his declining years deserves a film that does not cater to popular taste. The standard of beauty in those days for instance. Plump was pretty. Renoir agreed and I have never heard that he intentionally made women fatter than they were. The film score was very similar to the "Downton Abbey" theme. Downton on the Riviera? This movie was a total bore and an example of lowering the bar to cater to popular tastes.
May 3, 2013
A rather well-played biopic, even though I wish that it had been more about the life and art of the master and not the people around him in a short period of time.
May 3, 2013
For the Patriot Ledger
Movies are a visual medium and director Gilles Bourdos isn't about to let you forget it in his scrumptiously beautiful "Renoir," a three-faceted biopic in which painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir passes the torch to his middle son, filmmaker-to-be Jean Renoir, through the ample attributes of model/actress Andree Heushling.
Set in the summer of 1915 on the picturesque Renoir estate in Cagnes-sur-Mer, "Renoir" offers a wide canvas of romance, legacies and war painted in brush strokes too broad to fully fill in the blanks, as father and son compete for the affections of a voluptuous, fiery-haired goddess destine to become a muse to both. But what the film lacks in narrative prowess is offset by the gorgeous images Bourdos summons in making every frame resemble a Renoir through an intoxicating mix of color and light. As Jean (Vincent Rottiers) tells Andree (a stunning Christa Theret) during a particularly suggestive conversation, a Renoir painting always "looks good enough to eat," and so it is with the film, which seldom fails to satiate the eye.
The heart, however, is an entirely different matter. In that department, "Renoir" emerges somewhat empty, as Bourdos struggles to tap into the passion the two men derived from Andree, who had the distinction of being the elder Renoir's last spark of inspiration and his son's first. But that lust is lost in a stultifying lack of chemistry between Theret and her male counterparts. Rottiers is particularly drab, and much too handsome to play Jean, who in real life was average looking at best. The bigger disappointment is the lack of sparks between Theret and Michel Bouquet as Auguste, an artist cruelly ravaged by arthritis, but who derived newfound strength through Andree's feistiness and physical grandeur. You'd never know it, though, judging by how flat their scenes play. The only thing that saves them is the chance to ogle the oft-nude Theret's dangerous curves.
Yet "Renoir" is never boring, especially if you are a fan of either Auguste or Jean, who'd go on to earn acclaim for such movie masterpieces as "The Rules of the Game," "The River" and his crowning achievement, "Grand Illusion." To be made privy to how one artist makes his last hurrah and the other sows the seeds for his life's work is intently fascinating. More so, when you learn that Andree was responsible for both.
Despite the absence of a sensuous vibe between her and her male co-stars, Theret is excellent at portraying Andree as both a mythological figure and a proto-feminist, comfortable in her body and confident in her desires to get what she wants. Jean Renoir once wrote that if not for Andree, who would go on to star in many of his early movies under the name of Catherine Hessling, he never would have entered the filmmaking profession. In fact, when we first meet him, he's more interested in becoming a soldier on the front lines of World War I, but when a bullet pierces his thigh, France loses a warrior and gains a master of the cinema.
It's equally intriguing to observe how the elder Renoir refused to let his rapidly failing health prevent him from doing what he loved most, vowing that when his arthritic hands finally gave out, he would learn to paint with another certain part of his anatomy. It brings a whole new meaning to the term art appreciation. You'll never look at a Renoir work the same way again, whether it's on a canvas or, in the case of Jean, celluloid. And for that, we can thank Andree Heushling, a beauty who inspired beauty in a most beautiful way.
By Al Alexander
For the Patriot Ledger
Movies are a visual medium and director Gilles Bourdos isn't about to let you forget it in his scrumptiously beautiful "Renoir," a three-faceted biopic in which painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir passes the torch to his middle son, filmmaker-to-be Jean Renoir, through the ample attributes of model/actress Andree Heushling.
Set in the summer of 1915 on the picturesque Renoir estate in Cagnes-sur-Mer, "Renoir" offers a wide canvas of romance, legacies and war painted in brush strokes too broad to fully fill in the blanks, as father and son compete for the affections of a voluptuous, fiery-haired goddess destine to become a muse to both. But what the film lacks in narrative prowess is offset by the gorgeous images Bourdos summons in making every frame resemble a Renoir through an intoxicating mix of color and light. As Jean (Vincent Rottiers) tells Andree (a stunning Christa Theret) during a particularly suggestive conversation, a Renoir painting always "looks good enough to eat," and so it is with the film, which seldom fails to satiate the eye.
The heart, however, is an entirely different matter. In that department, "Renoir" emerges somewhat empty, as Bourdos struggles to tap into the passion the two men derived from Andree, who had the distinction of being the elder Renoir's last spark of inspiration and his son's first. But that lust is lost in a stultifying lack of chemistry between Theret and her male counterparts. Rottiers is particularly drab, and much too handsome to play Jean, who in real life was average looking at best. The bigger disappointment is the lack of sparks between Theret and Michel Bouquet as Auguste, an artist cruelly ravaged by arthritis, but who derived newfound strength through Andree's feistiness and physical grandeur. You'd never know it, though, judging by how flat their scenes play. The only thing that saves them is the chance to ogle the oft-nude Theret's dangerous curves.
Yet "Renoir" is never boring, especially if you are a fan of either Auguste or Jean, who'd go on to earn acclaim for such movie masterpieces as "The Rules of the Game," "The River" and his crowning achievement, "Grand Illusion." To be made privy to how one artist makes his last hurrah and the other sows the seeds for his life's work is intently fascinating. More so, when you learn that Andree was responsible for both.
Despite the absence of a sensuous vibe between her and her male co-stars, Theret is excellent at portraying Andree as both a mythological figure and a proto-feminist, comfortable in her body and confident in her desires to get what she wants. Jean Renoir once wrote that if not for Andree, who would go on to star in many of his early movies under the name of Catherine Hessling, he never would have entered the filmmaking profession. In fact, when we first meet him, he's more interested in becoming a soldier on the front lines of World War I, but when a bullet pierces his thigh, France loses a warrior and gains a master of the cinema.
It's equally intriguing to observe how the elder Renoir refused to let his rapidly failing health prevent him from doing what he loved most, vowing that when his arthritic hands finally gave out, he would learn to paint with another certain part of his anatomy. It brings a whole new meaning to the term art appreciation. You'll never look at a Renoir work the same way again, whether it's on a canvas or, in the case of Jean, celluloid. And for that, we can thank Andree Heushling, a beauty who inspired beauty in a most beautiful way.
Peneflix Movie Reviews
April 30, 2013
The film, like Renoir's canvases, pulsates with light, color; red-haired Andree is the metaphor for all the lush, pneumatic, pulchritude nudes who throb, even to this day, from his sumptuous canvases. (In close-ups, Guy Ribes, infamous art forger, performs the strokes of the genius.)
Languidly paced, "Renoir" moves ploddingly through one monotonous, sizzling summer day after another; referencing the temperature of a myriad of Renoir's works. Cinematographer Ping Bing Lee succeeds in enveloping the viewer in the warmth of a bygone era; the healing magic of a kissing breeze, cuddling softness of a shaded tree; tingling sweetness of a shallow brook.
Leonardo da Vinci sated that "painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." "Renoir" marries the two beautifully.
THREE & 1/2 STARS!!!
For Now.....Peneflix
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), masterful champion of "Impressionism" is brilliantly depicted by Michel Bouquet in Gilles Bourdos film about the legendary painter at the conclusion of his life, in tandem with his second son "Jean" (1894-1979, destined to be the iconic filmmaker), at the commencement of his, (Vincent Rottiers); linked by "Andree" (Christa Theret) the luminous, endorphin-infused, final muse of Renoir and the passionate enlightenment of Jean's. Magnificent subtlety, between Renoir's physical depletion and psychological angst of watching his son assume the role he always deemed his; Jean's sensitivity to his father's arthritic, rheumatic, crippled hands. It is 1915, Jean has been wounded in the war; his injuries will mend; Renoir, doomed.
The film, like Renoir's canvases, pulsates with light, color; red-haired Andree is the metaphor for all the lush, pneumatic, pulchritude nudes who throb, even to this day, from his sumptuous canvases. (In close-ups, Guy Ribes, infamous art forger, performs the strokes of the genius.)
Languidly paced, "Renoir" moves ploddingly through one monotonous, sizzling summer day after another; referencing the temperature of a myriad of Renoir's works. Cinematographer Ping Bing Lee succeeds in enveloping the viewer in the warmth of a bygone era; the healing magic of a kissing breeze, cuddling softness of a shaded tree; tingling sweetness of a shallow brook.
Leonardo da Vinci sated that "painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." "Renoir" marries the two beautifully.
THREE & 1/2 STARS!!!
For Now.....Peneflix
April 26, 2013
Like a lot of Renoir paintings it left me wanting a bit more than it gave. It has little depth and is more style than substance.
Brian Hayes
April 23, 2013
Are we so bullied by moviemaking that we're insensitive to film?
...the film is not draftsman comic of Hollywood serials wrapped in wit and two column pro forma, this is a fully realized work, let's regard,
...not the expensive sweep of Scorsese, Spielberg, not the labor of Coppola, not the bullying of Ford, Houston, it's scene by scene pause, a drawn camera, a discovered light, a willing color, where dull isn't lazy, where war isn't plot, the Director is fathomable relief, scene by scene a worthiness, nay, a craft,
...not to preach to an audience but deliver to peers, to tell the oldest staging, where none know muse, none know beauty, beauty never else than doubt,
...each of us please please be civil, the lesson of respect, dare that wealth is worthy or poverty is raw or comfort is easy when regard is surrounding us,
...under the bridge and a' that, vivat universitat égalité and a' that, any spring of water an incessantly poor professor, every fairness incessantly rare,
...dreams are also industries, romance is also architecture, sigh, wind is not invisible, politics is not prosthetic, and black is not a worthy profession,
Impression is breathing.
Craft. Scene by scene craft.
Are we so bullied by moviemaking that we're insensitive to film?
...the film is not draftsman comic of Hollywood serials wrapped in wit and two column pro forma, this is a fully realized work, let's regard,
...not the expensive sweep of Scorsese, Spielberg, not the labor of Coppola, not the bullying of Ford, Houston, it's scene by scene pause, a drawn camera, a discovered light, a willing color, where dull isn't lazy, where war isn't plot, the Director is fathomable relief, scene by scene a worthiness, nay, a craft,
...not to preach to an audience but deliver to peers, to tell the oldest staging, where none know muse, none know beauty, beauty never else than doubt,
...each of us please please be civil, the lesson of respect, dare that wealth is worthy or poverty is raw or comfort is easy when regard is surrounding us,
...under the bridge and a' that, vivat universitat égalité and a' that, any spring of water an incessantly poor professor, every fairness incessantly rare,
...dreams are also industries, romance is also architecture, sigh, wind is not invisible, politics is not prosthetic, and black is not a worthy profession,
Impression is breathing.
Ed in Uplandia
April 24, 2013
Beautiful without a doubt. But that doesn't make it a great film.
April 14, 2013
An Impressionist Icon and his son lust after a beautiful Provencal elle in an historic, lavish, sumptuously lighted estate. It is a lovely slice of a classic story that moves in a delightfully ponderous way. The viewer is treated to scenes as vignettes in Renoir's view of the world; much like a thoughtful tour of a gallery exhibition.
April 10, 2013
Relentlessly tedious, endlessly boring and interminable. The cinematic equivalent of watching Renoir's paint dry.
Harlequin68
Super Reviewer
April 8, 2013
It is one thing to be told Jean Renoir's father was a great painter; it is another to see their relationship dramatized in the engaging biopic "Renoir" which also allows us to trace the father's influence on the son. That especially includes the bucolic scenes the father took great enjoyment in capturing for all eternity on his canvas in his own long gone oasis that we first glimpse as Andree effortlessly glides on her bicycle in orange. With mortality just lurking beneath the surface, this is also a time of transition, not only about generations, but also involving technology. The only significant problem with the movie is that it is too long, forcing a traditional narrative arc, instead of letting the material unfurl naturally.
In 1915, Andree Heuschling(Christa Theret) takes a job as a model for famed painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir(Michel Bouquet). Instead of giving the old man a heart attack, his painting thrives again. Just as Andree considers herself a jack of all arts, Renoir's pre-teen son Claude(Thomas Doret) misunderstands, asking to see her breasts to which she flatly declines. As a consolation prize, he does get to see his brother Jean's(Vincent Rottiers) wound when he comes back from the war.
It is one thing to be told Jean Renoir's father was a great painter; it is another to see their relationship dramatized in the engaging biopic "Renoir" which also allows us to trace the father's influence on the son. That especially includes the bucolic scenes the father took great enjoyment in capturing for all eternity on his canvas in his own long gone oasis that we first glimpse as Andree effortlessly glides on her bicycle in orange. With mortality just lurking beneath the surface, this is also a time of transition, not only about generations, but also involving technology. The only significant problem with the movie is that it is too long, forcing a traditional narrative arc, instead of letting the material unfurl naturally.
April 7, 2013
A passionate dual-bio-pic for Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son Jean, that's pretty, and even a bit meditative. There's plenty of visual cues to the films of Jean Renoir here, but even those not familiar with the film maker should find the film's themes on love and art to be quite profound. For my money, it's a way more engaging bio-pic than Lincoln.
Jay Aarh
April 7, 2013
We watch portraits of the two Renoirs, Pierre-Auguste and his son Jean, fill the screen slowly in this movie, like watching a painter at work. There are other parallels to painting: the gorgeous settings, the lingering close-ups, the slow panning, the extreme length of the scenes. Andrée, the model, is there as the "essence" of life, a catalyst not to be known in the way we come to know those whose chemistry she excites. Here and there, dialogue tries to make sense of art, love, war, and life, but the words seem like imperfectly translated subtitles. We come away with a mostly visual/sensual grasp of what went on. Relax and let your eyes drink it in.
April 5, 2013
All i remember of this movie is hot beautifully shot it was however the acting was so wooden and placid i didnt which way to feel about anyone. the pacing is very still so that the audience can take it all in like a renoir painting itself,
jbnyc
April 5, 2013
beautiful to look at, but besides that - big yawn...............
Canchita
March 30, 2013
What a disappointment. Beautiful lush scenery. Slow dialog. Endless vacant stares and glances. Not one character even remotely sympatique. People around me were snoring. We must have been a theater full of Philistines.
March 30, 2013
Lush beautiful scenery coupled with endless silences and blank vapid stares. Felt absolutely no "sympathie" for any of the characters. Absolutely hated it. People were sleeping all around me. I am obviously a Philistine.
Michael H.
February 7, 2013
A languid, painterly movie. Absolutely gorgeous lighting and color design.
