René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films which often featured fantasy comedy themes. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the United Kingdom and the United States for more than a decade. Returning to France in the aftermath of 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 Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (The Italian Straw Hat, 1928), Sous les toits de Paris (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).
Early life René Clair was born and grew up in Paris in the district of Les Halles, whose lively and picturesque character made a lasting impression on him.Dictionnaire du cinéma français: sous la direction de Jean-Loup Passek. (Paris: Larousse, 1987). p.80. His father was a soap merchant; he had an elder brother, Henri Chomette (born 1896). He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1914 he was studying philosophy; his friends at that time included Raymond Payelle who became the actor and writer Philippe Hériat.Jean Mitry, René Clair. (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1960). p.5. In 1917, at the age of 18, he served as an ambulance driver in World War I, before being invalided out with a spinal injury. He was deeply affected by the horrors of war that he witnessed and gave expression to this in writing a volume of poetry called La Tête de l'homme (which remained unpublished). Back in Paris after the war, he started a career as a journalist at the left-wing newspaper L'Intransigeant.Ephraim Katz, The International Film Encyclopedia. (London: Macmillan, 1980). p.241.
Film career Having met the music-hall singer Damia and written some songs for her, Clair was persuaded by her to visit the Gaumont studios in 1920 where a film was being cast and he then agreed to take on a leading role in Le Lys de la vie, directed by Loïe Fuller and Gabrielle Sorère. He adopted the stage-name of René Clair, and several other acting jobs followed, including Parisette for Louis Feuillade. In 1922 he extended his career as a journalist, becoming the editor of a new film supplement to a monthly magazine, Théâtre et Comœdia illustrés. He also visited Belgium and after an introduction from his brother Henri, he became an assistant to the director Jacques de Baroncelli on several films.Jean Mitry, René Clair. (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1960). pp.7-9.
1924–1934 In 1924, with the support of the producer Henri Diamant-Berger, Clair got the opportunity to direct his own first film, Paris qui dort (The Crazy Ray), a short comic fantasy. Before it had been shown however, Clair was asked by Francis Picabia and Erik Satie to make a short film to be shown as part of their Dadaist ballet Relâche; he made Entr'acte (1924), and it established Clair as a leading member of the Parisian avant-garde.Dictionnaire du cinéma français: sous la direction de Jean-Loup Passek. (Paris: Larousse, 1987). p.81.René Clair was one of the artists presented in the retrospective group exhibition Dada is Dada at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden, running from 17 November 2017 to 20 May 2018. "Dada is Dada" . [Retrieved 25 January 2021]
Fantasy and dreams were also components of his next two films, but in 1926 Clair took a new direction when he joined Alexandre Kamenka's Films Albatros company to film a dramatic story, La Proie du vent (The Prey of the Wind), which met with commercial success. He remained at Albatros for his last two silent films, Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (An Italian Straw Hat) and Les Deux Timides (Two Timid Souls) (both 1928), in which he sought to translate the essentially verbal comedy of two plays by Labiche into works of silent cinema."René Clair et Albatros", in Le Cinéma russe en exil: l'aventure des Films Albatros. Cinémathèque Française. Retrieved 30 April 2012. While at Albatros, Clair met the designer Lazare Meerson and the cameraman Georges Périnal who were to remain important collaborators with him for the next decade. By the end of the silent era, Clair was celebrated as one of the great names in cinema, alongside Griffith, Chaplin, Pabst and Eisenstein. As the author of all of his own scripts, who also paid close attention to every aspect of the making of a film, including the editing, Clair was one of the first French film-makers to establish for himself the full role of an auteur.Dictionnaire du cinéma populaire français; sous la direction de Christian-Marc Bosséno et Yannick Dehée. (Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2004). p.204.
Clair was initially sceptical about the introduction of sound to films, and called it "an unnatural creation".Pierre Billard, Le Mystère René Clair. (Paris: Plon, 1998). p.154: "...cinéma parlant, monstre redoutable, création contre nature, grâce à laquelle l'écran deviendrait un pauvre théâtre, le théâtre du pauvre." He then realised the creative possibilities that it offered, particularly, in his view, if the soundtrack was not used realistically; words and pictures need not, and indeed should not, be tied together in a clumsy duplication of information; dialogue did not always need to be heard.International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers – 2: Directors; 4th ed.; editors, Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast. (Detroit, London etc: St James Press, 2000). p.193. Between 1930 and 1933, Clair explored these ideas in his first four sound films, starting with Sous les toits de Paris (Under the Roofs of Paris); this was followed by Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), and Quatorze juillet (Bastille Day) (1933). All of these films portrayed an affectionate and idealized view of working class life, and they did much to create a popular romantic image of Paris which was seen around the world. These films were made at the Epinay Studios for Films Sonores Tobis, a French subsidiary of the German-owned Tobis company.
When Chaplin made Modern Times in 1936, it was noted that some parts of it bore a marked similarity to scenes in À nous la liberté, and the production company Tobis launched a lawsuit for plagiarism against United Artists, the producers of Chaplin's film. Clair was embarrassed by this since he acknowledged his own debt to the spirit of Chaplin, and he refused to be associated with the action.Celia McGerr, René Clair. (Boston: Twayne, 1980). p.104.
After the immense success of these early sound films, Clair met with a major setback when his next film, Le Dernier Milliardaire (The Last Billionaire/The Last Millionaire) (1934), was a critical and commercial flop. While he was visiting London for the film's British première, he met Alexander Korda who offered him a contract to work in England. He accepted, and began a lengthy period of exile from film-making in France.Jean Mitry, René Clair. (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1960). p.94.International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers – 2: Directors; 4th ed.; editors, Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast. (Detroit, London etc: St James Press, 2000). p.194.
1935–1946 Clair's contract with Korda's London Films was for two years and it envisaged three films. Because of his limited English, he collaborated with the American dramatist Robert E. Sherwood as script-writer for his first film, The Ghost Goes West (1935), a comic fantasy about transatlantic culture clash. Clair and Sherwood became close friends. In January 1936, Clair visited America for two weeks, checking out future employment possibilities but still planning to remain with Korda. Korda however rejected Clair's next script and they parted company.Celia McGerr, René Clair. (Boston: Twayne, 1980). pp.123, 130-131. Clair's remaining time in England led to only one more completed film, Break the News (1938), a musical comedy with Jack Buchanan and Maurice Chevalier.
Returning to France, Clair attempted to make another film there in 1939, Air pur, which was to be a celebration of youth and childhood, but the outbreak of war interrupted filming and it was abandoned.Jean Mitry, René Clair. (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1960). p.102. In May 1940, Jean Giraudoux, then Minister of Information, suggested to Clair that the film profession should concentrate its resources in the south of country in Nice and Marseille – and if necessary establish a French production centre in the United States. It was with this last plan in mind that Clair and his family, along with Julien Duvivier, departed for America, but by the time he reached New York the project had already fallen through and he went straight on to Hollywood where several studios were interested in employing him.Jean Mitry, René Clair. (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1960). p.11.Celia McGerr, René Clair. (Boston: Twayne, 1980). p.138. He made his first American film for Universal Studios, The Flame of New Orleans (1941), but it was such a commercial failure that for a time Clair's career as a director was in the balance. After more than a year's delay, his next film was I Married a Witch (1942), followed by It Happened Tomorrow (1944), both of which did respectably well, and then And Then There Were None (1945), which turned out to be an exceptional commercial success despite being perhaps the least personal of his Hollywood ventures.Georges Charensol & Roger Régent, 50 ans de cinéma avec René Clair. (Paris: Éditions de la Table Ronde. 1979). p.149. Each of Clair's American films was made for a different studio.
In 1941 Clair was stripped of his French citizenship by the Vichy government, though this was later reversed.Olivier Barrot, René Clair, ou Le Temps mesuré. (Renans: FOMA/5 Continents, 1985). p.54. It was also in 1941 that he learned of the death of his brother Henri Chomette in France from polio.Celia McGerr, René Clair. (Boston: Twayne, 1980). p.150. In 1943, he was planning to go to Algeria to organise the Service Cinématographique de l'Armée, but funding for the project was withdrawn just as he was on the point of departure.Celia McGerr, René Clair. (Boston: Twayne, 1980). pp.15-17. In July 1945 he went back to France for a short visit, and then returned finally in July 1946, having signed a contract with RKO for his next film to be made in France.
Clair's American exile had allowed him to develop his characteristic vein of ironical fantasy with several commercially successful films, but there was some feeling that it had been at the expense of personal control and that his output there had not matched the quality of his earlier work in France.Georges Sadoul, Le Cinéma français (1890-1962). (Paris: Flammarion, 1962). p.106. Clair himself recognised that being employed by the highly organized American studios had allowed him to work in ideal circumstances: "In spite of the restrictions of the American system, it is possible, if one wishes, to take responsibility. In my four Hollywood films I managed to do what I wanted."Georges Charensol & Roger Régent, 50 ans de cinéma avec René Clair. (Paris: Éditions de la Table Ronde. 1979). p.136: "Malgré l'étroitesse du système américaine, il est possible, si on le veut, de prendre ses responsabilités. Dans mes quatre films à Hollywood je suis arrivé à faire ce que je voulais".
1947–1965