René Clair

  • René Clair – Paris qui dort AKA The Crazy Ray (1924)

    1921-1930FranceRené ClairSci-FiSilent
    Paris qui dort (1924)
    Paris qui dort (1924)

    A young man, the night watchman on the iconic Eiffel Tower, wakes to find he is alone in the world. Descending from his iron eyrie, all is eerily frozen, apart from a few souls who have escaped a mad scientist’s immobilising ray. The streets of Paris briefly become a Garden of Eden to play in, as the friends indulge in their new-found liberty. Like Powell and Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale, this is a film to be carried in the heart.Read More »

  • René Clair – Le million (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyFranceMusicalRené Clair

    An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.Read More »

  • René Clair – Les grandes manoeuvres AKA The Grand Maneuver (1955) (HD)

    1951-1960DramaFranceRené ClairRomance

    A French lieutenant makes a bet that he can seduce any woman in town in the two weeks before his regiment leaves for maneuvers, but his chosen target (a Parisian divorcée) isn’t like other girls he’s known.Read More »

  • René Clair – La beauté du diable AKA Beauty and the Devil (1950)

    René Clair1941-1950DramaFantasyFrance

    Synopsis:
    Professor Henri Faust, retiring after 50 years as an alchemist in a circa-1700 university, despairs at still knowing nothing of the true secrets of nature…whereupon his old acquaintance Mephistopheles, servant of Lucifer, appears and grants him youth and a new life. But with youth, Faust’s interest is diverted from science to women. And Mephistopheles, who has taken on the guise of the elderly Faust that was, sets many snares for his young friend’s slippery soul…Read More »

  • René Clair & Francis Picabia – Entr’acte (1924)

    1921-1930ExperimentalFranceFrancis PicabiaRené Clair

    An absolute surrealistic movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a surrealistic chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin disapear.Read More »

  • René Clair – It Happened Tomorrow (1944)

    1941-1950ComedyFantasyRené ClairUSA

    Quote:
    A newspaper obit writer, impatient to move ahead at his job, wishes he could know the news before it happens. One night, Old Pop Benson grants him that power, in the form of the next day’s newspaper. At first it only gets him in trouble, but also brings him closer to the pretty girl in a fortune-telling routine. By the third tomorrow’s paper, he’s sure he’s got this whole future business in the bag — reporting advance scoops, picking sure winners at the race track — when he reads a very final headline: the news of his own death.Read More »

  • René Clair – And Then There Were None (1945)

    1941-1950ClassicsRené ClairThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Seven guests, a newly hired personal secretary and two staff are gathered for a weekend on an isolated island by the hosts the Owens who are delayed. At dinner a record is played and the host’s message alleges that all the people present are guilty of murder and suddenly the first of them is dead, then the next – It seems that one of them is the murderer but the leading person is always the person who is murdered next and at last only two people are left.Read More »

  • René Clair – Les fêtes galantes AKA The Lace Wars (1965)

    1961-1970AdventureComedyFranceRené Clair

    Having lost a battle against the Prince of Beaulieu, Marechal d’Allenberg returns to his castle with his few remaining followers. As famine takes its toll, one of d’Allenberg’s men, Joli Coeur, sets off to look for food. The latter not only finds some pork, but he also saves the honour of a beautiful girl who was being attacked by some lustful brutes. On his return to the castle, Joli Coeur is surprised to see both the man who gave him the pork and the girl he rescued. The girl turns out to be d’Allenberg’s daughter, Hélène. Knowing that Joli Coeur would do everything for her, Hélène asks him to leave for a secret and dangerous mission. He must go back behind the enemy lines to look for Frédéric, the Prince of Beaulieu’s son, and ask him to stop the war…Read More »

  • René Clair – Sous les toits de Paris AKA Under the Roofs of Paris [+Extras] (1930)

    1921-1930ComedyFranceRené ClairRomance

    “Criterion” wrote:
    In René Clair’s irrepressibly romantic portrait of the crowded tenements of Paris, a street singer and a gangster vie for the love of a beautiful young woman. This witty exploration of love and human foibles, told primarily through song, captures the flamboyant atmosphere of the city with sophisticated visuals and groundbreaking use of the new technology of movie sound. An international sensation upon its release, Under the Roofs of Paris is an exhilarating celebration of filmmaking and one of France’s most beloved cinematic exports.Read More »

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