Here is the autobiography of the little boy with golden curls in the paintings of his father, Pierre Auguste Renoir-the boy who became the director many consider the greatest in history. François Truffaut called him an infallible filmmaker . . . Renoir has succeeded in creating the most alive films in the history of cinema, films which still breathe forty years after they were made.

In this book, Jean Renoir (1894-1979) presents his world, from his father's Montemarte studio to his own travels in Paris, Hollywood, and India. Here are tantalizing secrets about his greatest films-The Rules of the Game, The Grand Illusion, The River, A Day in the Country, La Bête Humaine, Toni. But most of all, Renoir shows us himself: a man if dazzling simplicity, immense creativity, and profound humanity.