French farce comes to the New World in 1840 as Claire Ledoux convinces the middle-aged banker Read More »
Tag Archives: René Clair
It Happened Tomorrow (1944) René Clair, Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie
In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Lawrence ‘Larry’ Stevens is an ambitious reporter of The Evening News. Read More »
The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge (1925) René Clair, Albert Préjean, Sandra Milovanoff, Paul Ollivier
A man goes to the lonely estate of the mysterious Dr. Renault, whose strange experiments release the man’s spirit from his body. Read More »
Beauties of the Night (1952) René Clair, Gérard Philipe, Martine Carol, Gina Lollobrigida
Young Claude, teacher by day, is a struggling composer by night. Alas, everyone around him seems to prefer noise to music. Read More »
Un chapeau de paille d’Italie / An Italian Straw Hat (1928) René Clair, Alice Tissot, Alexis Bondireff, Marise Maia, Comedy
On his way through the woods to his marriage, Fadinard’s horse eats the hat of a married lady spending here a few moments with her lover. Read More »
La beauté du diable / Beauty and the Devil (1950) René Clair, Michel Simon, Gérard Philipe, Nicole Besnard, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
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 Read More »
Les fêtes galantes / The Lace Wars (1965) René Clair, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Avron, Marie Dubois, Comedy, History, War
Having lost a battle against the Prince of Beaulieu, Marechal d’Allenberg returns to his castle with his few remaining followers. Read More »
I Married a Witch (1942) René Clair, Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Veronica Lake casts a seductive spell as a charmingly vengeful sorceress in this supernatural screwball classic. Many centuries after cursing the male descendants of the Salem puritan who sent her to the stake, this blonde bombshell with a broomstick finds herself drawn to one of them – a prospective governor (Fredric March) about to marry a spoiled socialite (Susan Hayward). The most delightful of the films the innovative French director René Clair made in Hollywood, I Married a Witch is a comic confection bursting with playful special effects and sparkling witticisms.
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À nous la liberté (1931) René Clair, Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France
A famous left-wing satirical comedy about two ex-convicts, one of whom escaped jail and then worked his way up from salesman to factory owner, where he oversees a highly mechanized operation where the workers are reduced to mere automatons. Fearful of being exposed over his past, at first by his friend and later by another gangster, the owner chooses to give his factory to the workers, then escapes with his friend to the freedom of the open road. The production company for “A Nous la Liberte” was for more than a decade embroiled in a lawsuit claiming that Charles Chaplin had seen their film and plagiarized many ideas from it as he developed “Modern Times.”
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Sous les toits de Paris / Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) René Clair, Albert Préjean, Pola Illéry, Edmond T. Gréville
While singing in a lower class quarter in Paris, the street singer Albert falls in love with the Romanian party girl Pola, who is the companion of the gangster Fred. One night, Albert meets with Pola, who has just found that Fred had stolen her key, and his friend Louis proposes to toss to date her. However, Albert brings her to his room and they spend the night together, with Albert sleeping on the floor and Pola on his bed. Early in the morning, the pickpocket Émile brings a bag with stolen pieces and asks Albert to keep the bag for him. When the police busts Albert’s room and finds the stolen goods, he is arrested and sent to jail. Meanwhile Fred travels and Pola seeks comfort with Louis, and they stay together. When Émile is arrested by the police, he confesses that Albert is innocent and he is released and seeks out Pola. Meanwhile Fred returns to Paris and also seeks out Pola that is with Louis.
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