Renoir

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As a gamer immersed in the world of cinema, I was captivated by the debut of Chie Hayakawa on the global stage with her 2022 film Plan 75, a chilling depiction of state-sponsored euthanasia for the elderly. This haunting dystopian vision earned a spot in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and netted the Camera d’Or Special Mention, announcing Hayakawa as a director with a subtly powerful style and a heartfelt perspective on human vulnerability. Now, only three years later, she’s back at Cannes with Renoir, her first entry into the main competition – an intensely personal and emotionally gripping childhood drama.

Plan 75 is molded by clear ideas and weighty symbolism, while Renoir is grounded in something more free-flowing and intangible: the spontaneous emotions and fragmented recollections of childhood. This film, set in suburban Tokyo in 1987, revolves around the 11-year-old character Fuki, who escapes into her imagination as she witnesses her father’s battle with terminal cancer and her family’s slow disintegration due to the impending sorrow. As her parents grapple with their grief in separate solitudes, Fuki develops an endearing fascination with telepathy and the supernatural, believing that she can heal the emotional rifts around her through the unseen powers of the mind.

As a devoted admirer, I find Renoir to be a profoundly intimate film for Hayakawa, yet it’s also a deliberate shift in style. “This time,” she shares, “I chose to venture down an unconventional path. Instead of constructing the film around a clear theme or message, I started with fragments – emotions and memories from my childhood – and let the narrative unfold naturally.”

Hayakawa’s father passed away due to cancer during her youth, and many of Fuki’s evolving feelings – guilt, longing, fear, and reverence – echo Hayakawa’s own complex emotions from that period in her life.

She expresses that she’s attempting to view her past childhood experiences through understanding. She wants to recognize the feelings of solitude, bewilderment, and self-centeredness, yet strive to pardon herself and build connections with others.

Although it is set in a particular historical era, the movie “Renoir” refrains from evoking nostalgia or sentimental feelings. Hayakawa mentions that she selected 1987 not only because she and Fuki were of the same age at that time, but also because it was a significant period in Japan’s post-war identity – right at the zenith of the country’s economic boom, when material wealth concealed an increasing feeling of spiritual desolation. “It was a period when people were intoxicated by prosperity yet profoundly lonely,” she elucidates. “I aimed to depict how fragile and valuable people are, particularly when they are quietly disintegrating.

In the movie, the title “Renoir” signifies Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting titled “Little Irène,” which Fuki requests her father to purchase for her. This painting holds a special significance for Fuki; as a child, her father had bought her the same print, and since then, this image has remained deeply engraved in her memory.

She explains that the story’s relationship with the painting or Renoir, the artist, doesn’t extend beyond a surface level. Interestingly, among the impressionist artists, Renoir is exceptionally renowned in Japan. During the 1980s, reproductions of his works were prevalent on the walls of numerous homes in Japan, symbolizing their admiration for Western culture and their aspiration to modernize.

Made by Loaded Films based in Tokyo, the film Renoir brings back several long-time collaborators of Hayakawa, such as cinematographer Hideho Urata, composer Rémi Boubal, and editor Anne Klotz from their previous work on Plan 75. The talented young actress Yui Suzuki delivers a remarkable debut performance in this movie, joined by two highly experienced Japanese actors, Lily Franky (known for Shoplifters and Like Father, Like Son) and Hikari Ishida.

The Hollywood Reporter connected with Hayakawa in Japan ahead of Renoir‘s world premiere.

What prompted the idea behind your approach to Renoir, and where did that inspiration originate? After completing my previous film, Plan 75, I found myself repeatedly explaining the underlying theme and social issues in Japan that inspired it during interviews. This process became tiresome, and at times, I questioned the authenticity of my explanations about the movie. As a result, for this project, I decided to adopt a fresh approach by creating a film without a defined concept or premise. Instead, I aimed to produce a work driven purely by emotion. The script evolved from a collection of personal episodes that had been resonating with me since my teenage years. Initially, these scenes were not connected in any way, and there was no strong theme or narrative to link them together.

The filmmaker deliberately crafted a movie without a clear narrative to express it, and now they’re being asked to explain the story in words. They laugh and share how they struggled to find the story, initially having many characters and episodes but eventually narrowing it down to one girl’s summer life. They didn’t have a defined theme until the editing phase, when they realized it was about a girl learning compassion and growing up through pain. The filmmaker found their lead actress, Yui Suzuki, after hearing positive recommendations from producers who had seen her in a college student film. They collaborated with her by providing a general sense of the story and style, allowing her to bring her natural talent and instincts to the role. The filmmaker mentions that Yui resembles them slightly but was not intentionally cast as an avatar. They discuss the emotional intensity of children and how they used dream sequences to explore Fuki’s inner world. Finally, they mention feeling honored but still in disbelief about being in Cannes main competition with their film Renoir.

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2025-05-19 08:25