Claude Renoir

Claude Renoir (December 4, 1913[1] September 5, 1993) was a French cinematographer. He was the son of actor Pierre Renoir, the nephew of director Jean Renoir, and the grandson of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Claude Renoir
Born(1913-12-04)December 4, 1913[1]
DiedSeptember 5, 1993(1993-09-05) (aged 79)
NationalityFrench

He was born in Paris, his mother being actress Véra Sergine. He was apprenticed to Boris Kaufman, a brother of Dziga Vertov, who much later worked in the United States on such films as On the Waterfront (1954). Renoir was the lighting cameraman on numerous pictures such as Monsieur Vincent (1947), Jean Renoir's The River (1951), Cleopatra (1963), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968), and the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). At the time of Claude Renoir's death, The Times of London wrote of The River that "its exquisite evocation of the Indian scene, helped to inaugurate a new era in the cinema, one in which color was finally accepted as a medium fit for great film makers to work in."[2]

He also participated in the making of The Mystery of Picasso (1956), the documentary on painter Pablo Picasso directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. He was the cinematographer for The Crucible (1957) and lived in East Germany during filming.[3] Renoir's career came to a close in the 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. Claude Renoir died at age 79 in Troyes, 55 miles east of Paris, near the village of Essoyes, where he had a home.

Selected filmography

film year
Toni 1935
Serenade 1940
Jericho 1946
The Ideal Couple 1946
Dilemma of Two Angels 1948
Doctor Laennec 1949
Madame Butterfly 1954
A Missionary 1955
One Life 1958
Blood and Roses 1960
The Lovers of Teruel 1962
Barbarella 1968
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun 1970
Une femme fidèle 1976
The Spy Who Loved Me 1977

References

  1. Some sources, such as Ginette Vincendeau's Encyclopedia of European Cinema, London: Cassell/BFI, 1995, p.328 indicate 1914 as his year of birth
  2. see Eric Pace "Claude Renoir, 79, A Cinematographer With a Painter's Eye", New York Times, 13 September 1993
  3. Signoret, Simone (1978). Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be. Harper & Row. p. 139. ISBN 0-06-013986-2.
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