UCSD-TV Movies - University of California Television

World Cinema Saturdays

René Clair

René Clair

René Clair gained recognition as a creative artist long before screenwriters and directors generally were accorded serious critical attention, and in the Thirties he was more highly regarded than Jean Renoir. Clair has been called the most French of filmmakers; each of his films reflects his own diverse and sophisticated view of the world, creating a poetically comic universe which centers on Paris. Clair's penchant for invention, research, and experimentation allied him to the pioneers of the film art, for whom a motion picture was not merely a mode of expression but one of invention. Far from limiting his work to the avant-garde, however, Clair applied his techniques to an art which, though the refined art of an intellectual, was also a popular art.

This Saturday's Movies - 7/31/2010

4:00 PM
8:30 PM

Le Million

An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.

(France, 1931, B&W, dir. Rene Clair, with Annabella & Rene Lefevre, French with English subtitles)

5:30 PM
10:00 PM

Under the Roofs of Paris

Story of a young street singer, Albert who falls in love with a girl, Pola. He has an uneasy relationship with a couple of pickpockets who like to work when he's demonstrating his talent. Everyone wants Pola, including Albert's best friend, Louis, and when Albert is framed for burglary, they don't think twice about going after her.

(France, 1930, B&W, 92 mins, dir. Rene Clair, with Albert Prejean & Polla Illery, French with English subtitles)

7:05 PM

A Nous La Liberte

Satirical comedy about two ex-convicts, one escapes jail and works his way up from salesman to factory owner, where he oversees a highly mechanized operation, so much so that his 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.

(France, 1931, B&W, 83 mins, dir. Rene Clair, with Raymond Cordy & Henri Marchand, French with English subtitles)

Upcoming Movies

8/7/2010		Smiles of a Summer Night (#436; 108 minutes; 1/1/2000)
8/7/2010		The Magician (#1776; 100 minutes; 10/12/1996)
8/7/2010		The Seventh Seal (#1480; 96 minutes; 10/12/1996)
8/7/2010		Wild Strawberries (#1621; 90 minutes; 3/8/1997)
8/14/2010		Ben-Hur (#13034; 140 minutes; 10/27/2007)
8/14/2010		Intolerance (#1660; 177 minutes; 3/10/2001)
8/14/2010		The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (#13438; 131 minutes; 4/11/2009)
8/21/2010		Antoine & Colette (#12479; 29 minutes; 12/1/2007)
8/21/2010		Jour De Fete (#1449; 79 minutes; 1/25/1997)
8/21/2010		Jules and Jim (#1737; 105 minutes; 12/28/1996)
8/21/2010		Les Mistons (#12478; 17 minutes; 8/18/2007)
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8/28/2010		Blood of a Poet (#328; 51 minutes; 1/11/1997)
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