René ClairFilmography

Born:: November 11, 1898 in Paris, France
Occupation:: Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Birth name:: René-Lucien Chomette
Biography:: In 1920 René-Lucien Chomette began acting in films under the name René Clair. He performed in Louis Feuillade's 1921 serials L'Orpheline and Parisette, but in 1924 he began writing and directing his own films with the comic fantasy Paris Qui Dort (The Crazy Ray). Through the '20s Clair would...Read More

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Les Fetes Galantes

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Avron, Jean Richard, Marie Dubois, Genvieve Casil

Synopsis: Director René Clair pokes fun at the gentlemanly art of warfare that existed in the 18th century in this war comedy. Jean-Pierre Casell plays a soldier of fortune who tries to mediate in a conflict between two Dukes that led to battle. He mediates in the name of a fickle princess to negotiate Read More

1965
Les Quatre Verités

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Aznavour, Leslie Caron, Anna Karina, Michel Serrault, Jean Poiret

Synopsis: The four "truths" are in this instance, four different romantic or dramatic vignettes in a slightly uneven compilation film. All four segments are loosely related to fables by the 17th-century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. In the first fable "Death and the Woodcutter" directed by Luis Berlanga Read More

1/31/63
Tout l'Or du Monde

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Bourvil, Alfred Adam, Philippe Noiret, Claude Rich, Annie Fratellini

Synopsis: This standard comedy was one of the last films by director René Clair, who began his career in 1922! The story deals with two real-estate developers who try to buy up one particular town noted for the long life of its residents. A nearby spring may have something to do with their longevity, and Read More

11/1/61
Love and the Frenchwoman

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sylvia Montfort, Marie-José Nat, Darry Cowl, Sophie Desmarets, Jacqueline Porel, Dany Robin, Valerie Lagrange, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Annie Girardot, François Perier, Martine Carol

Synopsis: Love and the Frenchwoman (La Francaise et L'Amour) concentrates on the nature of love by illustrating seven separate aspects of the emotion. In "Childhood," 9-year old Pierre-Jean Vaillard suffers a traumatic experience when he takes his parents' "cabbage patch" theory of conception too literally. Read More

1960
Porte des Lilas

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Pierre Brasseur, Georges Brassens, Henri Vidal, Dany Carrel, Raymond Bussières

Synopsis: Port de Lilias was Rene Clair's first film since 1955, and his last until 1960. It is more serious than most of Clair's efforts, ending with a death that is all the more surprising in that the director never quite prepares us for it. Pierre Brasseur plays Juju, a likeable ne'er-do-well who Read More

9/20/57
Les Grandes Manoeuvres

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Michèle Morgan, Gérard Philipe, Jean Desailly, Brigitte Bardot, Yves Robert, Simone Valere

Synopsis: Rene Clair's Grand Maneuver was originally titled Les Grandes Manoeuvres, which should surprise no one. Gerard Phillipe plays a dashing dragoons officer, vintage 1913, who wagers his friends that he can make the next woman who enters the room fall in love with him. In strides drop-dead gorgeous Michele Morgan Read More

10/26/55
Les Belles de Nuit

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Gérard Philipe, Martine Carol, Gina Lollobrigida, Magali Vendeuil, Marilyn Buferd

Synopsis: Director René Clair insisted that his 1952 production Beauties of the Night (Les Belles du Nuit) was intended as a comic variation on Griffith's multipart Intolerance (1916). The Clair film deals with a disillusioned music teacher (Gérard Philipe) who dreams of the beautiful women of history Read More

11/14/52
La Beauté du Diable

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Michel Simon, Gérard Philipe, Nicole Besnard, Simone Valere

Synopsis: La Beaute du Diable came into being when French filmmaker Rene Clair became fascinated with a structural defect in the "Faust" legend. Clair felt that the beginning and end of the story was perfect, but the middle section, wherein the title character blasphemes the Pope, was "silly." The director Read More

1950
Le Silence Est d'Or

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Marcelle Derrien, François Perier, Dany Robin, Robert Pizani

Synopsis: Originally released in France under the title Le Silence est D'Or, Man About Town is set in the Paris of the early 1900s. Maurice Chevalier plays a director of silent films (whose working conditions are recreated with remarkable accuracy), while Marcelle Derien is an actress whom Chevalier hopes Read More

1947
And Then There Were None

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez

Synopsis: Based on the classic novel by mystery author Agatha Christie that was later adapted as the Broadway hit Ten Little Indians , And Then There Were None begins with ten characters, each with a skeleton in his or her closet, on a remote island off the English coast. They soon realize that they have Read More

1945
It Happened Tomorrow

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: On the eve of their 50th anniversary, a couple argue about whether or not to reveal a story from the husband's past that explains how they met and came to be married. We flashback to the mid-1890's and Larry Stevens' (Dick Powell} first day on the job as a reporter for a New York newspaper Read More

1944
Forever and a Day

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Brian Aherne, Merle Oberon, Ida Lupino, Gladys Cooper, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains, Robert Cummings, Anna Neagle, Roland Young

Synopsis: The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old Read More

3/26/43
I Married a Witch

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: As she burns at the stake, a 17th century witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), places a curse on her accuser (Fredric March), so that from this day forward, all of his descendants (each played by him) will be unhappy in marriage. After several hilarious through-the-years examples (the Civil War-era Fredric March Read More

1942
The Flame of New Orleans

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Bruce Cabot, Roland Young, Anne Revere, Andy Devine, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: Acclaimed French filmmaker Rene Clair made his American debut with this period comedy/drama. Claire Ledeux (Marlene Dietrich) leaves her native France and arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1841, with one goal in mind: marrying a wealthy man. Posing as a pillar of society and a woman of means Read More

1941
Break the News

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jack Buchanan, June Knight, Marta Labarr, Gertrude Musgrove

Synopsis: What a combination! Break the News boasted the talents of English stage star Jack Buchanan, French entertainer Maurice Chevalier, legendary director Rene Clair, and songwriter Cole Porter. But what should have made for dynamite entertainment, fizzled in the eyes of disappointed contemporary Read More

1939
The Ghost Goes West

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Donat, Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette, Everley Gregg, Elsa Lanchester, Ralph Bunker

Synopsis: Wealthy American Joe Martin (Eugene Pallette) purchases an ancient Scottish castle and then has it dismantled and transferred to his Florida estate where he plans to reconstruct the castle brick by brick. Martin is unaware that his new acquisition comes equipped with an 18th-century ghost, played Read More

1935
Le Dernier Milliardaire

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marthe Mellot, Sinoel, Paul Olivier, Max Dearly, Raymond Cordy

Synopsis: Accused by his critics of ignoring the social ills of the world, director Rene Clair responded with Le Dernier Milliardaire, a "relevant" satirical comedy somewhat reminiscent of the much later Being There and Forrest Gump. Max Dearly stars as Monsieur Banco, the richest man in the world. On the Read More

1934
Quatorze Juillet

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Annabella, Raymond Cordy, Pola Illery, Georges Rigaud, Paul Ollivier

Synopsis: Quatorze Juliet translates to "July 14th"--and if you know your French history, you'll know that July 14th is Bastille Day. This Rene Clair films deals not with the tumultuous events of the French Revolution, but with a 1932 celebration of that particular French holiday. Clair made the film hoping Read More

1932
À Nous la Liberté

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Henri Marchand, Raymond Cordy, Rolla France, Paul Olivier, Jacques Shelly

Synopsis: À Nous la Liberté is an early talkie from French filmmaker René Clair. Louis (Raymond Cordy) and Emile (Henri Marchand) are a pair of convicts whose lives take decidely different paths after prison. Emile works his way up the ladder of capitalism, becoming a phonograph factory boss, a job that Read More

1931
Le million

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Annabella, René Lefèvre, Constantin Stroesco, Paul Olivier, Louis Allibert, Odette Talazac

Synopsis: René Lefèvre and Annabella are sheer delights, as is everything else in Le Million, René Clair's bright and winning early sound comedy. Clair has his actors sing their dialogue in a blithe and breezy way and utilizes a succession of surrealistic and Dadaesque touches to chronicle this lighthearted Read More

1931
Under the Roofs of Paris

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Albert Prejean, Pola Illery, Gaston Modot, Edmond T. Greville, Paul Olivier, Bill Bocket

Synopsis: Rene Clair's Under the Roofs of Paris is one of the first French films shot in sound. The film is a relaxed melodrama where a Parisian street singer (Albert Prejean) and his friend (Edmond Greville) pursue the love of the same woman (Pola Illery). Clair chose to use sound only when needed Read More

1930
La Tour

Crew: Director

12/15/28
Les Deux Timides

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Vera Flory, Françoise Rosay, Maurice de Féraudy, Pierre Batcheff

1928
Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marise Maia, Olga Tschechowa, Albert Prejean, Jim Gérald, Paul Olivier, Alex Allin

Synopsis: Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel's effervescent French farce An Italian Straw Hat was gracefully adapted for the screen by director René Clair. Albert Prejean plays a well-meaning fellow who is on the way to his wedding. While en route, Prejean's horse has the bad manners to eat the expensive hat of Read More

1927
La Proie du Vent

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sandra Milovanoff, Charles Vanel, Jean Murat

1926
Le Voyage Imaginaire

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Albert Prejean, Jim Gérald, Dolly Davis

1926
Le Fantome du Moulin Rouge

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sandra Milovanoff, Madeleine Rodrigue, Georges Vaultier, Albert Prejean

Synopsis: One of actor/director René Clair's earliest successes, the silent Le Fantome du Moulin Rouge follows in the French cinema tradition of moody, atmospheric, morbid fantasies that began with the Les Vampires serials and continued through Jacques Tourneur's Cat People. In Le Fantome, a ghost wreaks Read More

1925
Entr'acte

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie

Synopsis: A classic French silent of dance and Dada, this film was produced by French dance company Les Ballet Suedois, and stars them as well, mourning the loss of their star dancer Jean Börlin. An outrageous funeral procession is mounted, with the hearse being pulled by a camel. On the way up an incline Read More

1924
Paris Qui Dort

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Madeleine Rodrigue, Myla Seller, Henri Rollan, Albert Prejean

Synopsis: The Crazy Ray (Paris qui Dort) was a wild Rene Clair daydream which he deftly translated into his very first directorial effort. Deliberately invoking the early "chase" films which distinguished the French cinema, Clair weaves an improbable tale of a genially looney scientist who utilizes a magic Read More

1922
Le Sens De La Mort

Actors: André Nox, René Clair

1921
Le Lys De La Vie

Actors: René Clair

1921