René Clair

Cast · Writer · Director

Born

November 11, 1898 · Paris, France

Died

March 15, 1981

Birth name

René Lucien Chomette

"I don't think you can keep any art just for a minority of people. The real success of an artist in cinema is when he can interest the educated class and the popular public." René Clair was a French filmmaker and writer. His productions were noted for humor, burlesque, and surrealism. He was a journalist, critic, and composer before becoming an actor. After working as an assistant director, he wrote and directed his first film Paris which sleeps (1923), but began to develop his essence in the following year with Entr'acte (1924), a film created for the interval of a ballet act, which also involved the composer Erik Satie, and Dadaist artists Duchamp, Picabia, and Man Ray. Although he initially feared that sound might limit cinematic creativity, he was able to adapt and take advantage of the new possibilities it offered. He had great ability to integrate it into his films in an innovative way, where he learned to use sound not as a duplicate of visual representation, but as a counterpoint to it. Freedom for us! (1931) is considered one of his most important works in the transition from silent to sound films. Far from limiting himself to the avant-garde, he applied his techniques to comedies of everyday life; his art was popular.