To get a lot out of the film “Renoir,” it helps to know a little bit of film history. It helps to know that Jean Renoir, the son of famous impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, became one of France’s most renowned directors, responsible for “Boudu Saved from Drowning,” “Rules of the Game” and “Grand Illusion,” classics among 1930s films. It also helps to know that Catherine “Andree” Hessling, his first wife and star of his first films, was one of his father’s models.
Otherwise, “Renoir,” directed by Gilles Bourdos and written by Mr. Bourdos with Jerome Tonnerre, may feel like an artist biopic in which the character disappears for much of its running time. The year is 1915 in France, and the first World War rages on, but far enough away from the picturesque Cote d’Azur seaside to not really affect the Renoir household. The painter, ailing from crippling arthritis and wheelchair-bound, is in his last years. To his still-bustling estate comes Andree (Christa Theret), who lies her way into being the latest of Renoir’s models. (She says Mrs. Renoir told her about the job; Mrs. Renoir has passed away) It’s never too clear what she really wants out of the deal, or how far she’s come to get this job, but soon she’s doffing togs and posing. And Renoir, he likes it.