René Clément

Biography: life and films

In a film-making career spanning forty years, René Clément was one of the most acclaimed yet unfortunate film directors of his generation. Despite winning numerous prestigious awards for his films (which include two Oscars), some bad decisions damaged his reputation as a quality film director and his career ended in comparative obscurity.

Clément was born on 18th March 1913, in the Bordeaux region of France. He began his career by making short documentary films in the 1930s, before winning international acclaim for his 1946 film, La Bataille du rail. This film, part documentary, part action war story, was made immediately after World War II as a tribute to the contribution made by ordinary railway workers to the French Resistance. The film won Clément two prizes at Cannes and instant recognition as a world class film director.

In the following decade, Clément furthered his reputation with a series of excellent, highly acclaimed films, including Au-delà des grilles (1948), Le château de verre (1950), Jeux interdits (1952), Monsieur Ripois (1954) and Gervaise (1956). He won Oscars for Au-delà des grilles and Jeux interdits and another award at Cannes for Monsieur Ripois.

Clément's cinema showed a great diversity, both in content and technical presentation, suggesting a director with great confidence in his ability and perhaps more than a touch of courage in taking a gamble. What perhaps most characterises his films is a sense of cold detachment, placing him in the role of a casual bystander, perhaps a voyeur, rather than an auteur with something to say directly to the world. He almost leaves it entirely to his actors to form a bond of attachment with his audience, an approach which works with devastating effect in Jeux interdits and Gervaise, his most poignant films.

In the 1960s, Clément's cinema was soon overtaken with the emergence of the New Wave and his career began its slow decline. The decade began well enough with Plein Soleil, his adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith thriller. With sumptuous location work and an exemplary performance from a fresh young actor, Alain Delon, the film was a great success and is still regarded as a classic. However, the disastrous Paris brûle-t-il? , in which Clément attempted to make a Hollywod blockbuster-style war film, with a star-studded cast, quickly put the breaks on Clément's career. His subsequent films were scarcely noticed, although each reflected the hand of a competent and inspirational film maker. René Clément died in Monaco in March 1996.

Filmography