René Clément (18 March 1913 – 17 March 1996) was a French film director and screenwriter.

He is known for directing the films The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952), Gervaise (1956), Purple Noon (1960), and Is Paris Burning (1966).

He received numerous accolades including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and the Honorary César in 1984.

Almost ten years passed before Clément directed a feature but his French Resistance film, La Bataille du rail (1945), gained much critical and commercial success. From there Clément became one of his country's most successful and respected directors, garnering numerous awards including two films that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the first in 1950 for The Walls of Malapaga (Au-delà des grilles) and the second time two years later for Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits).

“In a film-making career spanning forty years, René Clément was one of the most acclaimed film directors of his generation, whose masterpiece was 'Forbidden Games', a haunting tale of war's carnage told from a child's point of view. ”

Clément had international success with several films but his star-studded 1966 epic Is Paris Burning?, written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Paul Graetz was a costly box office failure.

He began directing Play Dirty (a.k.a. Written in the Sand) but quit early in production due to disputes with the film's producer Harry Saltzman. He directed the thriller Joy House (1964) with Jane Fonda and Alain Delon.

In May 2023 On Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen, Fonda alleged that Clément sexually harassed her during the film's production telling her that the film involved a love scene and that she needed to sleep with him so that he could judge her orgasm. During the production he was 51 and she was 27.

In 1973 he was a member of the jury at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. Clément continued to make a few films until his retirement in 1975, including an international success with Rider on the Rain that starred Charles Bronson and Marlène Jobert. In 1984 the French motion picture industry honored his lifetime contribution to film with a special César Award.

Clément died on 17 March 1996, a day before his 83rd birthday and was buried in the local cemetery in Menton on the French Riviera where he had spent his years in retirement.

Filmography

Director

    Soigne ton gauche, 1936
    Paris la nuit, 1939
    La Bataille du rail (Battle of the Rails), 1946
    Le Père tranquille (Mr. Orchid), 1946
    Les Maudits (The Damned), 1947
    Au-delà des grilles (The Walls of Malapaga), 1949
    Le Château de verre (Glass Castle), 1950
    Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games), 1952
    Monsieur Ripois (Knave of Hearts), 1954
    Gervaise, 1956
    This Angry Age (Barrage contre le Pacifique, La Diga sul Pacifico), 1958
    Plein soleil (Purple Noon), 1960
    Quelle joie de vivre (The Joy of Living, Che gioia vivere), 1961
    Le Jour et l'Heure (The Day and the Hour), 1963
    Les Félins (Love Cage/Joy House), 1964
    Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?), 1966
    Le Passager de la pluie (Rider on the Rain), 1969
    La Maison sous les arbres (The Deadly Trap), 1971
    La Course du lièvre à travers les champs [fr] (...and Hope to Die), 1972
    La Baby-Sitter (Wanted: Babysitter), 1975

Actor

    Plein soleil (1960) – Le serveur maladroit (uncredited)
    The Joy of Living (1963) – French General
    Yoroppa tokkyu (1984) – (final film role)