A Companion to Jean Renoir -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on the Text -- Introduction: Renoir In and Out of His Time -- Close-Up on Renoir's Aesthetics -- Renoir's Filmmaking and the Arts -- Shifting Places in the Critical Canon -- French Renoir -- International Renoir -- Notes -- References -- PART I: Renoir in Close-Up -- Section 1: Reassessing Renoir's Aesthetics -- 1 Shooting in Deep Time: The Mise en Scène of History in Renoir's Films of the 1930s -- Opening Shots: Approaching Renoir's Style -- The Mise en Scène of History and the Need to See in Depth -- From Bazin to Deleuze -- Embedded Framings, Shifting Frames -- Historicity as Uncertainty -- The Loss of Solidity -- Conclusion -- Note -- References -- 2 The Exception and the Norm: Relocating Renoir's Sound and Music -- Renoir's Career: An Overview -- Sound as a Function of Studio Conditions -- An Actor-Centered Technique -- Renoir's Music -- Renoir's Awareness of Himself as a Sound Innovator -- References -- 3 The Invention of French Talking Cinema: Language in Renoir's Early Sound Films -- A Manifesto for Sound Cinema: La Chienne -- Sound as Substance -- Voice and Speech: Social Classes and Oddball Characters -- Renoir's Experimental Phase from La Nuit du carrefour to Toni -- Partie de campagne and Les Bas-fonds -- Renoir the Actor: Père Poulain, Cabuche, Octave -- Conclusion: Renoir - A Cinema of Discrepancy -- Note -- References -- 4 Renoir and His Actors: The Freedom of Puppets -- An "Aesthetic of Discrepancy" -- Renoir: Naturalist Filmmaker and Anthropologist -- Capturing a Performance -- From the Puppet-Master to the Documentary Filmmaker -- Renoir, a Forerunner of Modernity -- The Faked and the Spontaneous -- Renoir: A "Hitchcocko-Langian"? -- Renoir's Little Zoo -- Notes -- References.

5 Design at Work: Renoir's Costume Dramas of the 1950s -- Introduction: Worshipping the Artificial - Eye-Catching Decor -- Le Carrosse d' or -- French Cancan -- Éléna et les hommes -- Conclusion: Decor as Enlightenment -- Notes -- References -- Section 2: Critical Focus on Selected Films -- 6 Sur un air de Charleston, Nana, La Petite Marchande d'allumettes, Tire au flanc: Renoir and the Ethics of Play -- Nana -- Sur un air de Charleston -- La Petite Marchande d' allumettes -- Tire au flanc -- Notes -- References -- 7 La Grande Illusion: Sound, Silence, and the Displacement of Emotion -- Sounds and Silence -- A Multilingual Film -- The Bonding Third Language -- Note -- References -- 8 La Bête humaine: Double Murder at the Station at Le Havre -- Coup de Théâtre -- Beginning the Investigation: Script Archives, First Clues -- Hypothesis 1 -- Investigation (Continued): Mixed Messages -- Hypothesis 2 -- Investigation (Provisional Conclusion): Two or Three Murders at the Station at Le Havre -- The Story Goes On -- Notes -- References -- 9 La Règle du jeu: Lies, Truth, and Irresolution (A Critical Round Table) -- Notes -- 10 The River: Beneath the Surface with André Bazin -- Introduction: "Nothing but Reality"? -- Bazin's Unanswered Questions -- A Double Perspective -- Conclusion: "Mute, Diffuse and Inexhaustible Light" -- Notes -- References -- PART II: Renoir The Wider View -- Section 1: Renoir's Filmmaking and the Arts -- 11 Seeing with His Own Eyes: Renoir and Photography -- Introduction -- Face and Body -- Technique and Ideas -- Street and Vision -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 12 Popular Songs in Renoir's Films of the 1930s -- La Chienne -- Le Crime de Monsieur Lange -- La Bête humaine -- Conclusion: Repetition and Variation -- Notes -- References -- 13 Renoir and the Popular Theater of His Time.

Tire au flanc: How to Poeticize the Comique Troupier -- On purge bébé: Renoir's Apprenticeship of Sound Cinema with Feydeau -- Boudu sauvé des eaux, or How to Romp Freely under Duress -- Chotard et Cie: Phoney Poetry on Top of Poor Boulevard -- Renoir and the Zeitgeist: Between Sympathy and Criticism -- Notes -- References -- 14 Theatricality and Spectacle in La Règle du jeu, Le Carrosse d' or, and Éléna et les hommes -- Trilogies and Theatricality -- Marivaux, Musset, Mérimée, and the Commedia dell' Arte -- Theater against Life, and Life against Theater -- Art, Society, and Politics: Rules and Games -- Renoir's Heroines: Eros and Ideal -- Notes -- References -- 15 French Cancan: A Song and Dance about Women -- From Adulation to Demolition -- Women and Chanson Réaliste -- The Sexual Politics of a Spectacular "Woman's Film" -- French Cancan, French Women -- Notes -- References -- 16 Social Roles/Political Responsibilities: The Evolving Figure of the Artist in Renoir's Films, 1928-1939 -- The Artist is "Good for Nothing": Tire au flanc -- Artists Marginalized and Silenced: La Chienne and Boudu sauvé des eaux -- An Artist in the Reserve Army of Labor: Toni -- The Artist as Savior: Le Crime de Monsieur Lange -- Artists in Wartime: La Grande Illusion -- Artists in the Army of Revolution: La Marseillaise -- The Artist Disempowered: La Règle du jeu -- Notes -- References -- Section 2: Renoir's Place in the Critical Canon -- 17 Seeing through Renoir, Seen through Bazin -- The Best Film Critic Face to Face with the Best Director -- Framing in Renoir -- Writing in Bazin -- Renoir and Bazin: Adapting to Adaptation -- Through the Arts to What Lies beyond Art -- Notes -- References -- 18 Henri Agel's Cinema of Contemplation: Renoir and Philosophy -- Probing the Soul -- From Signification to Thinking -- The Politics of Contemplation -- Notes -- References.

19 Renoir and the French Communist Party: The Grand Disillusion -- Renoir in the 1930s: Traveling Companion or Fellow Traveler? -- The Foreign Years -- Back Home -- Late Renoir -- The Obituaries -- The PCF and Jean Renoir: An Everlasting Nostalgia -- Notes -- References -- 20 "Better than a Masterpiece": Revisiting the Reception of La Règle du jeu -- Notes -- References -- 21 Renoir and the French New Wave -- François Truffaut and Jean Renoir: Friendship and Admiration -- The New Wave's "Intertextual Debt" to Renoir's Cinema -- Conclusion: "In a Class of His Own" -- Note -- References -- 22 Renoir between the Public, the Professors, and the Polls -- Renoir in Academia (Take 1) -- Renoir Meets Film Studies -- Renoir: "Classic" and Contemporary (with a Little Help from Criterion) -- Notes -- References -- PART III: Renoir, a National and a Transnational Figure -- Section 1: Renoir, the Chroniclerof French Society -- 23 Renoir under the Popular Front: Aesthetics, Politics, and the Paradoxes of Engagement -- Everyone Has Their Reasons -- From Aesthetics to Politics, 1924-1936 -- The Art of Politics, 1936-1937 -- Engagement Abandoned? 1938-1939 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 24 The Performance of History in La Marseillaise -- Likability -- Roundedness and Agency -- Vision and Understanding -- Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- References -- 25 Toni: A Regional Melodrama of Failed Masculinity -- A Mediterranean Film -- Troubled Masculinity -- Anticipating the Popular Front -- Note -- References -- 26 La Règle du jeu: A Document of French Everyday Life -- Introduction -- "A Social Inventory of Our Time" -- By Way of Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 27 Renoir's Jews in Context -- La Grande Illusion -- La Règle du jeu -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Section 2: Renoir, the Transnational Figure -- 28 Renoir's War.

Introduction: "Throwing in the Towel?" -- Reacting to Defeat -- Between Pétain and De Gaulle -- Rediscovering Politics: 1942-1943 -- Returning to France or Staying in America? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 29 Interconnected Sites of Struggle: Resituating Renoir's Career in Hollywood -- Humanist, Rebel, Failure: The Evolving Historiography of Renoir in Hollywood -- First Years in Hollywood: Projects -- First Years in Hollywood: Friendships -- Supporting the War Effort On and Off Screen -- Navigating the Postwar Period -- Notes -- References -- 30 The Southerner: Touching Relationships -- The Prologue -- Appropriate Portions: Food and Clothing -- The Act of Touch -- Having Work to Do, and Doing It Together -- Notes -- References -- 31 The Woman on the Beach: Renoir's Dark Lady -- Renoir Film or Hollywood Movie -- The Nightmare and Other Dreamlike Sequences -- Returning to the Question of Genre -- Notes -- References -- 32 Remaking Renoir in Hollywood -- Defining the Remake -- Censorship -- Culture and Ideology -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Filmography -- Select Bibliography -- Index.