As a young man he wrote poetry. He was wounded in the First World War and
worked as a journalist and actor. He is a classic of a French cinematography.
Even though he was close to the avant-garde and pure movies at the beginning of
his film career and later to the poetic realism (light motive of life as a
social game is in Les Grandes manoeuvres (1955) is similar to the one in
Jean Renoir’s Rčgle du jeu, La (1939), Rene Clair was always recognisable
by his own attitudes, refined irony, and nostalgic remembrance of childhood. He
made his films in Great Britain and the United States. He collaborated on three
films with Gerard Philipe, along with Jean Gabin, the most famous French actor
at the time.