René Clair was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the UK and USA for more than a decade. Returning to France after 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 The Italian Straw Hat (1928), 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). In 1924, while Clair was working on Ciné-sketch for the theatre with France Picabia, he first met a young actress, Bronja Perlmutter, who subsequently appeared in his film Le Voyage imaginaire (1926) premiered at the newly opened Studio des Ursulines. They married in 1926, and their son, Jean-François, was born in 1927. René Clair died at home on 15 March 1981, and he was buried privately at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Clair's reputation as a film-maker underwent a considerable reevaluation during the course of his own lifetime: in the 1930s he was widely seen as one of France's greatest directors, alongside Renoir and Carné, but thereafter his work's artifice and detachment from the realities of life fell increasingly from favour. The avant-gardism of his first films, and especially Entr'acte, had given him a temporary notoriety, and a grounding in surrealism continued to underlie much of his comedy work. It was however the imaginative manner in which he overcame his initial scepticism about the arrival of sound which established his originality, and his first four sound films brought him international fame. Clair's years of working in the UK and USA made him still more widely known but did not show any marked development in his style or thematic concerns. It was in the post-war films that he made on his return to France that some critics have observed a new maturity and emotional depth, accompanied by a prevailing sense of melancholy but still framed by the elegance and wit that characterised his earlier work. However, in the 1950s the critics who heralded the arrival of the French New Wave, especially those associated with Cahiers du Cinéma, found Clair's work old-fashioned and academic. The paradox of Clair's reputation has been further heightened by those commentators who have seen François Truffaut as the French cinema's true successor to Clair, notwithstanding the occasions of their mutual disdain.
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Biography from TMDB.
- November 11, 1898
- March 15, 1981 (aged 82)
- Paris, France
- Director, writer, producer and editor
- 13 on MovieCove · 38 credits in all
What are René Clair's films like?
Across their 12 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 1 · Wry 1 · Earnest 10
Light 11 · Serious 1 · Dark 0
Grounded 4 · Stylized 6 · Heightened 2
Gentle 8 · Charged 3 · Intense 1
Steady 7 · Shifting 4 · Whiplash 1
A split, not a type: Straight-faced 2 · Some laughs 3 · Funny 7
Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 8 · Relentless 0
Casual 8 · Engaged 3 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 9 · Affecting 3 · Heavy 0
Resolved 10 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Happy7
- Bittersweet3
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch René Clair's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 8 of their 13 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for René Clair's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
38 credits, 13 with a MovieCove page; 8 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Martinez, Margaritas and Murder! (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
René Clair, tout entre nous n'était qu'un jeu (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2021)
Ferraille et chiffons (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
The Lace Wars (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1965)
Laugh with Max Linder (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1963)
The Four Truths (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1962)
Tout l'or du monde(1961)
Midcredits score: 37th percentile of all films
Love and the Frenchwoman(1960)
Midcredits score: 34th percentile of all films
The Gates of Paris (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1957)
The Grand Manoeuvre (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1955)
Beauties of the Night(1952)
Midcredits score: 72nd percentile of all films
Beauty and the Devil(1950)
Midcredits score: 90th percentile of all films
Man About Town(1947)
Midcredits score: 79th percentile of all films
And Then There Were None(1945)
Midcredits score: 88th percentile of all films
It Happened Tomorrow(1944)
Midcredits score: 81st percentile of all films
Forever and a Day(1943)
Midcredits score: 78th percentile of all films
I Married a Witch(1942)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
The Flame of New Orleans(1941)
Midcredits score: 59th percentile of all films
Break the News (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1938)
Fire Over England(1937)
Midcredits score: 57th percentile of all films
The Ghost Goes West(1935)
Midcredits score: 68th percentile of all films
The Last Billionaire (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1934)
July 14 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1933)
À nous la liberté(1931)
Midcredits score: 89th percentile of all films
Le Million (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1931)
Miss Europe (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1930)
Under the Roofs of Paris (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1930)
Two Timid Souls (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1928)
The Italian Straw Hat (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1928)
La Tour (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1928)
The Prey of the Wind (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1927)
The Imaginary Voyage (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1926)
The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1925)
The Crazy Ray (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1925)
Entr'acte (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1924)
The Midnight Chimes (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1924)
Parisette (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1921)
Lily of Life (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1920)
Career shape
A full career of 38 titles from 1920 to 2024.
Biggest box office
I Married a Witch (1942)
Highest rated
Beauty and the Devil (1950)
Most popular right now
And Then There Were None (1945)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do René Clair's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 78th percentile, the median of all 13; across their 12 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 77th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up7
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th2
Shape of the crowd
None of their 13 titles divides audiences: 11 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser11
- Broadly Agreed2
Reviewers score the atmosphere 77/100 and the pacing 56/100 in their films, across 10 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does René Clair work with?
People who share at least 2 of René Clair's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Raymond Cordy shares the most, 4.
Writers
- Jacques RémyShared titles: Tout l'or du monde (1961), Love and the Frenchwoman (1960)See all 2 shared titles with Jacques Rémy
- Dudley NicholsShared titles: And Then There Were None (1945), It Happened Tomorrow (1944)See all 2 shared titles with Dudley Nichols
Actors
- Raymond CordyShared titles: Beauties of the Night (1952), Beauty and the Devil (1950), Man About Town (1947), À nous la liberté (1931)See all 4 shared titles with Raymond Cordy
- Albert MichelShared titles: Beauties of the Night (1952), Man About Town (1947)See all 2 shared titles with Albert Michel
- Gérard PhilipeShared titles: Beauties of the Night (1952), Beauty and the Devil (1950)See all 2 shared titles with Gérard Philipe
- Paolo StoppaShared titles: Beauties of the Night (1952), Beauty and the Devil (1950)See all 2 shared titles with Paolo Stoppa
Composers, cinematographers and editors
- Louisette HautecoeurShared titles: Tout l'or du monde (1961), Love and the Frenchwoman (1960), Beauties of the Night (1952), Man About Town (1947)See all 4 shared titles with Louisette Hautecoeur
- Georges Van ParysShared titles: Tout l'or du monde (1961), Beauties of the Night (1952), Man About Town (1947)See all 3 shared titles with Georges Van Parys
- Henri TavernaShared titles: Love and the Frenchwoman (1960), Man About Town (1947)See all 2 shared titles with Henri Taverna
- Armand ThirardShared titles: Beauties of the Night (1952), Man About Town (1947)See all 2 shared titles with Armand Thirard
Producers
- Angelo RizzoliShared titles: Tout l'or du monde (1961), Beauties of the Night (1952)See all 2 shared titles with Angelo Rizzoli
Mixed roles
- Robert PiroshShared titles: Man About Town (1947), I Married a Witch (1942)See all 2 shared titles with Robert Pirosh
