This coffee-table-sized book about Renoir—which is lovingly designed and produced and a work of art itself—has photographs from all the early silent films and from every other film that Renoir made, including a couple that are now lost or went unfinished. The plates come in all sizes from half-page to full-page to two page spreads, to 2x3s, and even smaller. The photos are drawn from publicity stills, production shots, and images taken directly from the films. These selections create a nice contrast in showing the power of the film images with how they were produced/shot. The plates are beautifully rendered on a substantial chrome matte paper that allows them to be viewed in a near-print finish. The blacks have pop, the grey-scale is tonally subtle, and the whites are white. The text is printed in a very readable size in a Times or Times variant, with some pages printed white on black, a design element that adds to the richness of the book as art. There are also colour images from Renoir's later films and three of his father's paintings of Jean as a baby, a boy, and a young man (the latter, Le Chasseur in the L.A. County Museum of Art).  The text, written by Christopher Faulkner in plain, concise prose, is in balance with the images. It includes useful narrative summaries of the films, insightful comments on some images, and a running, chronological narrative of Renoir's life that includes some information on his personal life without being tabloidesque.

To estimate Renoir is to face the reality that his films of the 1930s—particularly La Grand Illusion (1937) and La Règle du Jeu (1939), but Boudu sauvé des eaux, La Nuit du carrefour, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, La Bête Humaine, La Chienne and La Vie est `a nous as well—are his great triumphs. La Règle du Jeu consistently turns up on lists of the ten greatest films ever. La Grand Illusion consistently turns up as one of the handful of the greatest anti-war films ever. These two flicks demonstrate Renoir's warmth, his humanity, his social concerns, his wit, the cunning with which he mixes comedy and tragedy, his ability to create great characters at various class levels, and, not least, his dexterity with a camera. It’s worth noting that in the history of artistic advances in film that Renoir shot deep focus images with many different loci of interest in one frame before Welles and Citizen Kane (q.v., La Règle du jeu). The Nouvelle Vague directors, Truffaut especially, championed Renoir as their father for his technical audacity, his realism, and his fluid location shooting.

When the Nazis invaded France in 1939, Renoir, who had identified with socialist and other left-wing politics (La Vie est à nous was made with money provided by Le Parti Communiste Français), had to flee France. Like many from the European film colony, he wound up in Hollywood, the home of his boyhood heroes Chaplin and Griffiths. Alas, the studio system now ruled and all Renoir could get to direct were commonplace studio projects, none of which, perhaps excepting The Southerner and The Diary of a Chambermaid (with Paulette Godard), bear watching. He was also saddled with the boring establishing/medium/two-shot/close-up Hollywood shooting formula. Yet even The River, and the films he made after returning to France, such as Elena et les hommes, French Cancan, and Le Caporal Épinglé cannot equal his films of the 1930s.

Nonetheless, this book is a tribute to the man and all his work. It's easily worth the price of admission. In addition to the plates, the film chronology reprints some of the original posters: a nice touch. Finally, word of caution: Wash your hands dutifully every time you pour through this book—which will be often—or else wear white, print-handling gloves. If you don't, you will, as I learned the hard way, leave smeared oil marks from your fingers on the deep blacks of the pages and the plates.

This review of Jean Renoir: A Conversation with His Films 1894-1979 also appears at http://feministreview.blogspot.com/.
 

Reeling Through Hollywood

By Dan Bessie

Writer-director Dan Bessie's terrific new book, Reeling Through Hollywood, is a must-read for anyone interested in a career in the flicks--or just plain anyone.  

Mr. Bessie spent several decades working in film in different capacities. He was a PA on the legendary film Salt of the Earth, the only American feature ever bankrolled by a union. He was a cartoonist for MGM who drew Tom & Jerry, and he also created the long-running "Hey Culligan Man!" TV commercials of the 1960s. He ran his own company in L.A., producing short films for the medical and education markets. He produced Executive Action, a Burt Lancaster/Robert Ryan film about the Kennedy assassination. Tiring of Hollywood, Mr. Bessie moved to Santa Cruz in northern California and started his own company (Shire Films), producing films for the education market, as well as a feature, Hard Traveling.  

Mr. Bessie never became rich and was only modestly famous inside the industry. This is precisely why -- apart from its breezy style, insider and outsider tales, some upfront honesty about his peccadilloes with the ladies, and a running commentary on his struggle with his famous father, Alvah Bessie-- that Dan’s book is so valuable to anyone contemplating a life in The Biz (or even a life, period). The subtitle of Reeling Through Hollywood is How I Spent 40 Fabulous Years in Film and Never Made a Nickel. Mr. Bessie exaggerates on the nickel. He did manage to survive swimming with the sharks, but that "fabulous" is not prevaricating one iota. Maybe you, too, will never see your name on a marquee or in studio credits but, as Mr. Bessie insists, and his book so aptly demonstrates, you can have a wonderful life as a film artist. For all these reasons, I can't recommend Reeling Through Hollywood highly enough.  

Incidentally, Mr. Bessie has recently re-married, moved to France, and with his new wife, Jeanne, writes a blog about his journeys. In late August of this year, he will turn 75 years old. By all the evidence, Dan Bessie is one of those guys who never surrendered to an easy chair or a routine life. Currently, he's my hero. Reeling Through Hollywood is also available tvia the publisher, Blue Lupin Press, at www.bluelupinpress.com, and at other venues online.