Matthew Renoir was photographed Aug. 15 at his Be Kind Video store in Burbank. Photographed by Roger Kisby Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir hang in every major museum in Southern California. The French master's son, filmmaker Jean Renoir, was nominated for an Oscar in 1946. Believe it or not, there's another Renoir working in Hollywood today, and he's a trailblazer in his own way. Meet Matthew Renoir - the great-great-grandson of the Impressionist painter and the great-grandson of the filmmaker - who at the height of streaming opened a video rental store in Burbank called Be Kind Video. When people find out about his family history, Renoir admits, "It's a weird thing. Not that I'm not wanting to talk about it." But their first question is always the same, he says: " 'Do you have any paintings?' I always go, 'Yeah, they're in my car.' " Related Stories Lifestyle After Earning 81 Emmy Nods, Apple TV+ Raises Monthly Subscription Rate -- Here Are the Streamer's Best Deals Right Now News After 8.8 Magnitude Quake Near Russia, Tsunami Waves Reach Japan, Hawaii and California Matthew, 41, grew up on a farm in Stevinson, California - a town of about 300 people in the Central Valley. His father owned a plumbing business, his mother was a nurse. The closest movie theater was 25 minutes away. He was aware of his family's legacy from a young age, he tells me, saying, "It's not like my grandmother sat us down." It was just a part of their lives. Matthew's grandfather - Jean Renoir's son - would take the family to France every few years, and sometimes they'd visit the painter's home in Côte d'Azur, which has been preserved as a museum. On those trips, he met his cousin, French actress and César Award nominee Sophie Renoir, and they're still tight; he recently attended her niece's wedding. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841-1919, Self-Portrait, c. 1875 Sepia Times/Universal Images Group/Getty Images As a kid, Matthew's great-grandparents had a Renoir masterpiece called Jean as a Huntsman hanging in their house. In the painting, a young Jean Renoir is depicted holding a hunting rifle. If Matthew wants to revisit the piece, he has to go to LACMA. "Because of inheritance tax and all that crap," he says, "it ended up being gifted" to the museum. He continues: "My great-grandfather Jean and his brothers inherited so many paintings. When Jean was making films initially, he was funding them by selling paintings. He didn't feel great about doing that." (In 1990, Sotheby's sold Renoir's Bal du Moulin de la Galette for $78.1 million; in 2024, a lesser Renoir sold for $10.5 million.) Like his great-grandfather, Matthew would gravitate toward cinema. After high school, he enrolled in community college before transferring to San Francisco State to pursue cinema studies. (Only one professor made the family connection.) Later, living in Los Angeles, he worked as a cinematographer on independent films, including a documentary about a Valley couple famous for their immersive Halloween installations. But Renoir was malleable. When the real estate market boomed early in the pandemic, he found a niche shooting drone footage for high-end brokers, which paid well but certainly wasn't why he'd fallen in love with the camera. Be Kind Video in Burbank stocks more than 12,000 titles - on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray - and many are for sale. Photographed by Roger Kisby Renoir wasn't a careerist. Searching for his next act, he was reminded of a childhood dream of owning a video rental store. He recalled aimlessly roaming the aisles with his older brother, and while they rented a Rainbow Brite movie so often, the owner suggested they just buy the tape, there was a sense of discovery. "We didn't have cable," he says. "We probably didn't even own a couple dozen tapes or whatever." But the video store with "the posters, the mobiles, [advertising] the stuff coming out ... We all had TVs that were like this big," he says, mimicking a tiny five-inch screen. In his mind, it felt like Imax. That's the vibe he's tried to capture at Be Kind Video, a 525-foot storefront that's designed to feel like your best friend's basement, with wood paneling from the '80s and a vintage Nintendo plugged into a hulking TV. New releases rent for just four bucks. There's even a lockbox outside for returns. (The late fee is $1.25 a day, and Blockbuster-style membership cards are in the works.) Be Kind stocks more than 12,000 titles - on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray - and many are for sale. On the day I visited, 14-year-old Arabella from Toluca Lake was hunting for gifts for a friend's birthday. Teenagers are into physical media? "It's less modern," Arabella explains, her mom likening it to vintage shopping. After browsing for 10 minutes, they left with a sweet haul of Happy Gilmore, T