Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Boats on the Marne once and for all establishes Jean Renoir as the supreme artist of the 20th century's supreme art. With long-shots of startling philosophical backdrops that dissolve into delicate close-ups of Renoir's inimitable style, Prakash Younger shows how a staggering string of masterpieces progressively penetrated the conundrums of 1930s France until La règle du jeu grasped, like no other artwork let alone film, the full comic tragedy of our modernity."—Dudley Andrew, Author of 'What Cinema Is!'
"In Boats on the Marne, Prakash Younger deploys a sophisticated philosophical approach to Renoir's films of the 1930s, demonstrating their coherent and reflective response to what he calls 'the historical dangers of the times'. His ambitious model of 'dialogic auteurism' melds innovative close analysis of Renoir's 'dispassionate' camerawork with a scrupulous understanding of his films' multiple cultural genealogies and historical contexts. In particular, the in-depth analysis of La Règle du jeu illuminates the film's structure as an evocative portrait of civilization that is then ruthlessly destroyed. Younger successfully reactivates a Bazinian model of Renoir criticism to propose a profoundly ethical understanding of cinematic ontology and its picturing of the contingency of human social relations. His erudite yet deeply personal work will be welcomed by Renoir and film-and-philosophy scholars alike."—Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau, Editors of 'A Companion to Jean Renoir'
Table of ContentsPreface: The Enigma of La Règle du Jeu
Introduction: Jean Renoir, Cinephilosopher
1. Genesis and Style of the French Renoir
2. Escaping from Flaubert or, Reflecting on Romanticism
3. Loving the Distance or, Historical Experience and the Fruits of Reflection
4. La Règle du Jeu or, Putting Modernity in Question
Conclusion: Why La Règle du Jeu Matters
Bibliography
Index
