René Clair

French film director, born in 1898. One of the major figures of French cinema, he began as a journalist and actor before directing silent films. His early sound work, beginning with Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) and À nous la liberté (1931), showed how sound could be used poetically rather than naturalistically. He worked in Britain and Hollywood during the war, then returned to France. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. He died in 1981.