Wall Street Journal: At Film Forum, René Clair’s Versatile, Creative Career
- #news
- #headline
Figure timeline
René Clair
René Clair, 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 afte…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · French filmmaker and writer (1898–1981) · screenwriter · film director · film producer · journalist · writer · film editor · film actor · filmmaker · director · also René Clair, René-Lucien Chomette, Rene Kler, Ren Lucien Chomette, René Chomette, Ren Clair
Born 11 November 1898 · Died 15 March 1981 · Q55388
30 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
2 photos · 1 video
Video
La Tour (1928)
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Milestone
- Award
2025· 2 entries
Moviefone: René Clair, tout entre nous n'était qu'un jeu - Where to Watch
- #news
- #headline
1994· 1 entry
The Académie established the Prix René-Clair as an annual prize awarded to a distinguished film-maker
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1981· 2 entries
Died 1981-03-15.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
René Clair died at home on 15 March 1981, and he was buried privately at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
1972· 1 entry
Staged Gluck's Orphée for the Paris Opéra
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1967· 1 entry
Received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1960· 2 entries
Was elected to the Académie Française; he was not the first film-maker so honoured (he was preceded by Marcel Pagnol (1946), Jean Cocteau (1955), and Marcel Achard (1959)) but he was the first to be elected primarily
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: seat 19 of the Académie française (1960–1981).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1959· 1 entry
Directed a stage production of Musset's On ne badine pas avec l'amour, in which Gérard Philipe gave one of his last performances before his death later that year
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1957· 1 entry
That Clair received one of his most positive appreciations: "A complete film author who, since the silent era, has brought to the French cinema intelligence, refinement, humour, an intellectual quality that is slightly d
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1956· 1 entry
Was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1955· 1 entry
Awarded Louis Delluc Prize for The Grand Maneuver (1955).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1951· 2 entries
Directed his first radio production, Une larme du diable
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Won the Prix Italia in Naples for a French radio production of Une larme du diable by Théophile Gautier
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1943· 1 entry
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1941· 2 entries
That he learned of the death of his brother Henri Chomette in France from polio
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Clair was stripped of his French citizenship by the Vichy government, though this was later reversed
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1939· 1 entry
Air pur, which was to be a celebration of youth and childhood, but the outbreak of war interrupted filming and it was abandoned
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1936· 1 entry
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1926· 3 entries
And their son, Jean-François, was born in 1927
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Published a novel, Adams (translated into English as Star Turn), about a Hollywood star for whom the distinction between the real and unreal becomes blurred
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1924· 1 entry
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1922· 1 entry
Extended his career as a journalist, becoming the editor of a new film supplement to a monthly magazine, Théâtre et Comœdia illustrés
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1920· 1 entry
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1917· 1 entry
At the age of 18, he served as an ambulance driver in World War I, before being invalided out with a spinal injury
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1914· 1 entry
Was studying philosophy; his friends at that time included Raymond Payelle who became the actor and writer Philippe Hériat
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1906· 1 entry
And nostalgically evoked the world of early French film-making; its plot also created variations on Molière's L'École des femmes
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1898· 1 entry
Born 1898-11-11.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth