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Jean Renoir (credit: Globe Photos)

(born Sept. 15, 1894, Paris, France — died Feb. 12, 1979, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) French film director. The son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he discovered a passion for the cinema while recovering from wounds suffered in World War I. He directed his first film, La Fille de l'eau, in 1924. His films, in both silent and later eras, were noted for their deep appreciation for the unpredictability of human character. He cowrote the screenplays for many of his films, including Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), Madame Bovary (1934), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), and La Bête humaine (1938) as well as his two masterpieces, Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939). He lived in the U.S. (1940 – 51), where he directed The Southerner (1945), The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), and The River (1951).

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