Hot date with French flicks

What could be finer than a spring painted in the colors of Renoir? Lincoln Center’s annual “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” fortnight kicks off tonight and goes on to celebrate Renoir père et fils. In the superb drama “Renoir,” showing this weekend, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) is in the winter of his life and having a prickly time with his son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) when the youth returns home from WWI with a bad leg — yet vows, stupidly in the old man’s view, to return to the front as soon as he is able.

Jean would survive the war and go on to direct such films as “Boudu Saved From Drowning,” “The River” and “The Rules of the Game,” all of which will be shown as part of the Rendez-Vous at the Walter Reade Theater, BAM and the IFC Center in Greenwich Village.

A nude model (Christa Theret, above) for the painter Renoir strikes up a flirtation with his son in the powerful drama, “Renoir.”

In “Populaire,” debuting tonight, the dashing Romain Duris teaches his secretary, Déborah François, to become a champion typist in the “Mad Men”-inflected romantic comedy.

Tonight the fest, which in recent years has given New Yorkers their first shot at such hits as “La Vie en Rose” and “The Intouchables,” begins on a sweet note, with the breezy, candy-colored “Mad Men”-era rom-com “Populaire.” It stars heartthrob Romain Duris as an insurance exec who coaches his shy secretary (Déborah François) to become a champion typist.

Among other highlights of the fest (check filmlinc.com for tickets), which runs through March 10:

* “The Suicide Shop” : Fans of “Little Shop of Horrors” and Tim Burton will delight in this morbidly droll 3-D animated musical about an “Addams Family”-style shop that sells everything you need to end your life.

* “Thérèse Desqueyroux”: “Amélie” star Audrey Tautou turns off the charm as a frustrated variant of Madame Bovary plotting deadly revenge on her nasty husband (Gilles Lellouche) in the final drama by the late Claude Miller. The film is a remake of a 1962 version, starring “Amour” Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva, that will also be screened at the fest.

* “Journal de France”: Don’t miss this hauntingly impressionistic travelogue by Raymond Depardon about what he’s witnessed in 50 years of documenting his country.

* “Granny’s Funeral”: Director Bruno Podalydès’ light, quirky comedy stars his brother and co-writer Denis as an adulterous pharmacist (and would-be magician) trying to juggle a wife, a mistress and his grandmother’s funeral arrangements.

* “Three Worlds”: A trio of arrogant young jerks accidentally hit an immigrant and leave him gravely injured on the street in a dark drama that comments on class and morality in contemporary Paris.

* “In the House”: Kristin Scott Thomas stars in a droll social satire about fiction versus reality from one of today’s most acclaimed French directors, François Ozon (“Swimming Pool,” “Potiche”).

* “The Girl From Nowhere”: An endlessly philosophizing retired mathematician (Jean-Claude Brisseau, also the writer-director) collides unexpectedly with reality when he finds himself arguing his points with a pretty girl (Virginie Legeay) he rescues from a beating outside his apartment.

* “A Lady in Paris”: French cinema’s living monument Jeanne Moreau (“Jules and Jim”) plays a domineering grande dame who strikes up a curiously close relationship with her Estonian immigrant caregiver.

kyle.smith@nypost.com