Renoir
Autumn 2013 Features series
Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 4:00pm
Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 7:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by Gilles Bourdos
Screenplay by Michel Spinosa, Gilles Bourdos, and Jérôme Tonnerre
Based on the book by and Jacques Renoir
Starring Christa Theret, Vincent Rottiers, and Michel Bouquet
Rated PG ·
1h 51m
France
Italian and French
Renoir
The Côte d’Azur, 1915: Gilles Bourdos’ lushly atmospheric drama tells a love story about the celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, his middle son Jean (who became the illustrious film director of such classics as Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game) and their muse.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) is in declining health at age 74 and is tormented by the loss of his wife Aline and the terrible news that Jean (Vincent Rottiers) has been wounded in action during the First World War. But when a young girl, Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret), miraculously enters his world, the elder Renoir is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation, inspiring some of Renoir’s most renowned works including Les baigneuses (The Bathers).
Returning to convalesce at the family home, “Les Collettes”, in Cagnes-sur-Mer close to the Mediterranean coast, Jean, in the face of his father’s fierce opposition, also falls under the spell of the free-spirited young Andrée. Their beautiful home and majestic countryside grounds reverberate with familial intrigue.
Renoir locates a fascinating moment of change—one century’s way of thinking giving way to the next and the passing of a family’s artistic torch.