The Battle of the Rails

René Clément (1913, Bordeaux-1996) studied architecture at Paris’s Academy of Fine Arts. From the mid-1930s on he began to work as a cameraman and director of documentary films. During the occupation he was involved in the resistance movement while, at the same time, documenting the French resistance with his film camera. After the war, these shots became the basis for his first feature, The Battle of the Rails, considered the first neorealist work. The war also underlies what is probably his most important film, The Secret Game (Les jeux interdits, 1951), here present in the conduct and behaviour of innocent children. The film was awarded at Cannes in 1952 and also won the Venice Grand Prix that year, and in 1953 it won an Oscar. Clément’s filmography in the following years contains works of varying genres. Apart from an adaptation of Zola’s novel The Kill under the title Gervaise, he made comedies (Knave of Hearts / Monsieur Ripois; The Joy of Living / Che gioia vivere; Joy House / Les félins) and crime stories (Purple Noon /  Plein soleil; Rider on the Rain / Le passager de la pluie, etc.). The majority of his films were popular with audiences. The critics acknowledge Clément’s excellent technical skills, but condemn his films’ somewhat impersonal aloofness.