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René Clair

 

TSPDT Rating

Director / Screenwriter / Producer / Editor
1898 - 1981
Born November 11, Paris, France
Key Production Countries: France, USA
Key Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy Comedy, Romantic Drama, Romantic Fantasy
Key Collaborators: Paul Ollivier (Leading Character Player), Raymond Cordy (Leading Character Player), Albert Prejean (Leading Player), Louisette Hautecour (Editor), Georges Van Parys (Composer), Leon Barsacq (Production Designer), Frank Clifford (Producer), Georges Perinal (Cinematographer), Renee Le Henaff (Editor), Annabella (Leading Player)
Highly Recommended: Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), À nous la liberté (1931), Le Million (1931)
Recommended: Paris qui dort (1923), Entr'acte (1924), The Italian Straw Hat (1927), Quatorze Juillet (1932), I Married a Witch (1942), And Then There Were None (1945)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Film Reference ] [ Films de France Profile ] [ New York Film Annex ] [ Wikipedia ] [ Classic Film and Television Home Page ] [ Senses of Cinema Article (2001) ] [ UbuWeb: Entr'acte ]
Books: [ The Films of René Clair: Exposition and Analysis
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: The Italian Straw Hat (1927), Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931)
 
Le Million (1931)Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)A Nous la Liberte (1931)And Then There Were None (1945)
 
     
  "Clair now looks something less than the major director he was known as in 1935. His work since that first venturing outside France has seldom lacked amusement or a sense of fantasy, but it does seem lightweight. Even his finest films - those made in the first experiment of sound - are rather precious and too vaguely opposed to "progress" when set beside L'Âge d'or, L'Atalante, Boudu, or Toni. Clair's world is brilliantly conceived and wrought, but it remains self-contained." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)  
     
  "Although Clair made several English-language and Hollywood films, his American period is generally blamed for his decline. The trouble with Clair's American career is that he was typed for fantasy and other fluff, and could never escape his niche...À Nous la Liberté, Le Million,  Sous les Toits de Paris, The Italian Straw Hat retain a certain classic value, but Clair, once too good to be called even the French Lubitsch, now seems more like the French Mamoulian." - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)  
     
  "Although briefly associated with the French avant-garde (his second film, Entr'acte, remains a masterpiece of pure cinema), from the very start he considered film as a medium of entertainment. He developed into one of the most original stylists in world cinema, a complete filmmaker who always wrote or collaborated on the films he directed and constantly explored the possibilities of visual form, movement and sound." - (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994)  
     
  "An expert at light comedy, fantasy, and artful avant-garde productions." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
 
 
 
 
 

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Last updated: 22/02/2010 06:30 PM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
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