Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir

“So let's start. I think that I have to pick this because it's hard not to, it's hard to avoid The Golden Coach and French Cancan and Elena and Her Men. And I especially like the, I like them all, but The Golden Coach, if you've seen it and you've been through that ending, it's pretty chilling. And I'm guessing that this is not going to be the only Renoir I will be putting here.”

“Once at a screening down in Los Angeles, I came late and I walked into the screening room and I stepped on somebody's toe and I sat down next to him and just as the film was beginning somebody came in front of us and the man next to me said 'Hello Fritz' and Fritz Lang turned around and said 'Hello Jean' and I was sitting next to Jean Renoir with Fritz Lang sitting in front of me. They're great films, inspire me and all of us to get started.”

“And oh, just quickly, Renoir. I'll take that one too. Okay, I'm finished.”

“Jean Renoir, one of my favorites. I met him. I had dinner with him and we talked about acting. And Renoir said to me, which he later repeated in a film, he said that he learned the most important thing about film acting from Michel Simon and Louis Jouvet. He said what they did, what they taught me, he said, is that the actors mustn't start acting, they must discover the character and they do that by talking and listening to each other and see what emerges. And I, these films I've never seen, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.”