René Clair

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  • group Other Names:
    Rene Clair, René Chomette, René Després, Danceny

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René Clair was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the UK and USA for more than a decade. Returning to France after World War II, he continued to make films that were characterised by their elegance and wit, often presenting a nostalgic view of French life in earlier years. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Clair's best known films include The Italian Straw Hat (1928), Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), I Married a Witch (1942), and And Then There Were None (1945). In 1924, while Clair was working on Ciné-sketch for the theatre with France Picabia, he first met a young actress, Bronja Perlmutter, who subsequently appeared in his film Le Voyage imaginaire (1926) premiered at the newly opened Studio des Ursulines. They married in 1926, and their son, Jean-François, was born in 1927. René Clair died at home on 15 March 1981, and he was buried privately at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Clair's reputation as a film-maker underwent a considerable reevaluation during the course of his own lifetime: in the 1930s he was widely seen as one of France's greatest directors, alongside Renoir and Carné, but thereafter his work's artifice and detachment from the realities of life fell increasingly from favour. The avant-gardism of his first films, and especially Entr'acte, had given him a temporary notoriety, and a grounding in surrealism continued to underlie much of his comedy work. It was however the imaginative manner in which he overcame his initial scepticism about the arrival of sound which established his originality, and his first four sound films brought him international fame. Clair's years of working in the UK and USA made him still more widely known but did not show any marked development in his style or thematic concerns. It was in the post-war films that he made on his return to France that some critics have observed a new maturity and emotional depth, accompanied by a prevailing sense of melancholy but still framed by the elegance and wit that characterised his earlier work. However, in the 1950s the critics who heralded the arrival of the French New Wave, especially those associated with Cahiers du Cinéma, found Clair's work old-fashioned and academic. The paradox of Clair's reputation has been further heightened by those commentators who have seen François Truffaut as the French cinema's true successor to Clair, notwithstanding the occasions of their mutual disdain.

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  • wc Gender: Male
  • calendar_month Birth Date: 1898-11-11
  • event Death Date 1981-03-15
  • school Known for: Directing
  • star Popularity: 3.1
  • info Birth Place Paris, France
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image Images

smart_display Movies and TV shows by René Clair

movie_edit Directing

8

And Then There Were None

1945-10-31

8

And Then There Were None

1945-10-31

8

It Happened Tomorrow

1944-03-31

8

It Happened Tomorrow

1944-03-31

8

It Happened Tomorrow

1944-03-31

8

À Nous la Liberté

1931-12-18

8

À Nous la Liberté

1931-12-18

8

I Married a Witch

1942-10-30

8

I Married a Witch

1942-10-30

8

Le Million

1931-02-04

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Le Million

1931-02-04

8

Entr'acte

1924-12-04

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Entr'acte

1924-12-04

8

The Flame of New Orleans

1941-07-07

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The Flame of New Orleans

1941-07-07

8

Forever and a Day

1943-01-21

8

Beauties of the Night

1952-11-14

8

Two Timid Souls

1928-12-04

8

The Crazy Ray

1925-01-01

8

The Crazy Ray

1925-01-01

8

The Grand Manoeuvre

1955-10-26

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The Imaginary Voyage

1926-04-30

8

The Gates of Paris

1957-09-27

8

La Tour

1928-01-02

8

Under the Roofs of Paris

1930-04-28

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Under the Roofs of Paris

1930-04-28

8

The Beauty of the Devil

1950-03-16

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The Beauty of the Devil

1950-03-16

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The Italian Straw Hat

1928-01-13

8

All the Gold in the World

1961-11-01

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Love and the Frenchwoman

1960-09-16

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Love and the Frenchwoman

1960-09-16

8

The Ghost Goes West

1935-12-17

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The Ghost Goes West

1935-12-17

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Silence Is Golden

1947-05-21

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The Flame of New Orleans

1941-07-07

8

The Four Truths

1962-12-21

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July 14

1933-01-13

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July 14

1933-01-13

8

The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge

1925-03-13

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The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge

1925-03-13

8

The Italian Straw Hat

1928-01-13

8

Break the News

1938-01-02

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The Last Billionaire

1934-10-16

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Break the News

1938-01-02

8

All the Gold in the World

1961-11-01

8

All the Gold in the World

1961-11-01

8

The Imaginary Voyage

1926-04-30

8

The Last Billionaire

1934-10-16

8

The Grand Manoeuvre

1955-10-26

8

Fire Over England

1937-03-05

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The Prey of the Wind

1927-05-12

8

À Nous la Liberté

1931-12-18

8

Silence Is Golden

1947-05-21

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Silence Is Golden

1947-05-21

8

The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge

1925-03-13

8

The Lace Wars

1965-12-01

8

Love and the Frenchwoman

1960-09-16

8

The Grand Manoeuvre

1955-10-26

8

The Midnight Chimes

1924-02-22

8

La Tour

1928-01-02

8

Entr'acte

1924-12-04

8

The Crazy Ray

1925-01-01

8

The Crazy Ray

1925-01-01

8

The Lace Wars

1965-12-01

8

Ferraille et chiffons

1972-11-03

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Beauties of the Night

1952-11-14

8

Beauties of the Night

1952-11-14

8

Beauties of the Night

1952-11-14

8

Beauties of the Night

1952-11-14

8

The Four Truths

1962-12-21

8

I Married a Witch

1942-10-30

8

The Prey of the Wind

1927-05-12

8

Two Timid Souls

1928-12-04

8

The Gates of Paris

1957-09-27

8

The Gates of Paris

1957-09-27

8

The Gates of Paris

1957-09-27

8

Miss Europe

1930-08-01

8

Miss Europe

1930-08-01