René Clément

To date, he is the most-awarded French filmmaker at the festival. Two of his films — The Walls of Malapaga (1949) and Forbidden Games (1952) — won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Clément's other notable films included Gervaise (1956), Purple Noon (1960), Is Paris Burning (1966), Rider on the Rain (1970), and And Hope to Die (1972). He received the Honorary César in 1984. Clément was a co-founder and President of the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques and a President of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

• Name — René Clément • Born — 18 March 1913 • Birthplace — Bordeaux, France • Died — 17 March 1996 • Place of death — Monte Carlo, Monaco • Education — École des Beaux-Arts • Occupation — Film director, screenwriter • Awards — See below

Born and raised in Bordeaux, Clément studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. In 1936, he directed his first film, a 20-minute short written by and featuring Jacques Tati. Clément spent the latter part of the 1930s making documentaries in parts of the Middle East and Africa. In 1937, he and archaeologist Jules Barthou were in Yemen making preparations to film a documentary, the first ever of that country and one that includes the only known film image of Imam Yahya.

Clément directed numerous short films during the 1930s and early 1940s. He was also Jean Cocteau's technical director on Beauty and the Beast (1946). 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. At the inaugural Cannes Film Festival, Clément was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Best Director Award. It was the first of five prizes (from 10 total nominations) Clément would receive at the festival. He was a member of the feature film jury at the 1964 festival. As of 2026, Clément remains the most-awarded French filmmaker at the festival. 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). He launched the career of Alain Delon with his 1960 thriller Purple Noon, based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Clément had international success with several films, but his star-studded 1966 epic Is Paris Burning?, written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, 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 Delon and Jane Fonda. 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. Clement was a founding member and a President of the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in 1968. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1985, and served as its president in 1990.

Clément's second wife was Irish screenwriter Johanna Harwood, whom he had met on the set of his 1954 film Monsieur Ripois.

In May 2023 on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen, Fonda alleged that Clément sexually harassed her during the film's production of Joy House, 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.

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

Clément's work was often criticized by the young filmmakers of the French New Wave. François Truffaut in particular often called out Clément as indicative of the Tradition de qualité ("Tradition of Quality") that the New Wave sought to break from. Clément himself believed that the criticism, like that of his fellow luminaries Jean Delannoy and Claude Autant-Lara, hurt his career in his later years. Conversely, Truffaut's Cahiers du Cinéma colleague André Bazin was less critical. Other critics have noted Clément's versatility across multiple genres, and his use of location filming. His oft-collaborator Alain Delon considered him a mentor figure, and dedicated his 1982 directorial effort Le Battant to him. One critic summarized his career by saying "Among the great classic French filmmakers, René Clément has two particularities: he is the director who achieved the most success with the general public over three decades, and yet he is the least appreciated by critics, film buffs, and the general public alike."

Clément received a retrospective at the Cinémathèque française in 2013.

René Clément is recorded as screenwriter, actor, cinematographer and director.