René Clair
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| René Clair | |
|---|---|
| Born | René-Lucien Chomette November 11, 1898 Paris, France |
| Died | March 15, 1981 (aged 82) Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France |
| Years active | 1924 - 1965 |
René Clair (November 11, 1898 – March 15, 1981) was a French filmmaker.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist under the pseudonym René Desprès. He also made his debut as an actor and became the assistant of Jacques de Baroncelli and Henri Diamant-Berger.
Clair started making films during the advent of sound, and therefore had very conflicting views of its uses. Primarily a silent filmmaker beforehand, he was forced to use sound in his films for financial success. However, in lieu of creating films from theater plays like other French directors, Clair used sound to take the audience out of the narrative and into a different reality.
In 1924, he produced his first films, Entr'acte and Paris qui dort, which were followed by a quick succession of notable films. During World War II, he went to Hollywood and was stripped of his French citizenship by the Vichy government.
He was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge and received the Grand Prix du Cinéma Français in 1953. In 1960, he was elected to the Académie Française. He came to personify French film, and the prize for film awarded by the Académie Française bears his name. One of his notable films, À Nous la Liberté led to a controversy involving Modern Times .
[edit] Awards & Recognitions
- À nous la liberté (1931)
- Venice Film Festival Audience Referendum Winner - Most Amusing Film
- The Ghost Goes West (1935)
- Venice Film Festival Official Selection
- Les Belles de nuit (1952)
- Venice Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize Winner
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Fernand Gregh |
Académie Française Seat 19 1960 - 1981 |
Succeeded by Pierre Moinot |
[edit] Partial filmography
[edit] Feature films
- Le Fantôme du Moulin-Rouge (1925)
- The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge
- Le Voyage imaginaire (1926)
- The Imaginary Voyage
- La Proie du vent (1927)
- The Prey of the Wind
- Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (1928)
- An Italian Straw Hat
- Les Deux timides (1928)
- Two Timid Souls
- Sous les toits de Paris (1930)
- Under the Roofs of Paris
- Le Million (1931)
- The Million
- À nous la liberté (1931)
- Freedom for Us
- Quatorze Juillet (1932)
- Bastille Day
- The Ghost Goes West (1935)
- Break the News (1938)
- The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
- I Married a Witch (1942)
- Forever and a Day (1943)
- It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
- And Then There Were None (1945)
- Le Silence est d'or (1947)
- Silence Is Golden
- La Beauté du diable (1950)
- Beauty and the Devil
- Les Belles de nuit (1952)
- Beauties of the Night
- Les Grandes Manoeuvres (1955)
- The Grand Maneuver
- Summer Manoeuvres
- Porte des Lilas (1957)
- Gate of Lilacs
- The Gates of Paris
- Tout l'or du monde (1961)
- All the Gold in the World
- Les Fêtes galantes (1965)
- The Lace Wars
[edit] Short films
- Entr'acte (1924)
- Paris qui dort (1924)
- Paris Asleep
- The Crazy Ray
- La Tour (1928) Documentary
- Forever and a Day (1943) (segment "1897")
- La Française et l'amour (1960) (segment "Mariage, Le")
- Love and the Frenchwoman
- Les Quatre vérités (1962) (segment "Les deux pigeons")
- Three Fables of Love
[edit] Television
- Les Fables de La Fontaine (1964) (episodes "?")
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Bibliography of books and articles about Rene Clair via UC Berkeley Media Resources center
- René Clair at the Internet Movie Database
