Misplaced Pages

#154845

73-787: Gréville began his career as a film journalist and critic. In parallel with a few acting performances in some silent films and in the first talkie of René Clair , Sous les toits de Paris (1930), he directed his first short films. His first experience of directing had been on the shooting of Abel Gance 's Napoléon in 1927. He had then worked as an assistant director, notably on the English film Piccadilly , L'Arlésienne (directed by Jacques de Baroncelli ), Augusto Genina 's Miss Europe (with Louise Brooks ) and Abel Gance's La Fin du Monde . Between 1930 and 1940 he directed several French films: In Britain again, he filmed Under Secret Orders (1937) with Dita Parlo and John Loder (1937),

146-481: A ceremonial sword ( l'épée ). The members bear the cost of their uniforms themselves. The robes cost around $ 50,000, and Amin Maalouf said that his induction cost him some $ 230,000 overall. The swords can be particularly expensive as they are individually designed. Some new members have had funds for them raised by committees. The Académie is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of

219-466: A Hollywood star for whom the distinction between the real and unreal becomes blurred. He occasionally returned to writing fiction ( La Princesse de Chine and Jeux du hasard ), but many of his publications dealt with the cinema, including reflections on his own films. Apart from many journal articles, his main publications were: Clair also ventured into other media. In 1951 he directed his first radio production, Une larme du diable . In 1959 he directed

292-629: A chairperson and chief representative of the Académie. The two other officers, a Director and a Chancellor, are elected for three-month terms. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Dean of the Académie. New members are elected by the Académie itself; the original members were appointed. When a seat becomes vacant, a person may apply to the Secretary if they wish to become a candidate. Alternatively, existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate

365-576: A cinematic world that is his own, full of rigour and not lacking in imagination, thanks to which he remains one of our greatest film-makers." Such appreciations have subsequently been rare, and the self-contained artificiality of Clair's films, his insistence on the meticulous preparation of an often literary script, and his preference for filming in studio sets rather than on location increasingly set him apart from modern trends in film-making. The paradox of Clair's reputation has been further heightened by those commentators who have seen François Truffaut as

438-519: A clumsy duplication of information; dialogue did not always need to be heard. Between 1930 and 1933, Clair explored these ideas in his first four sound films, starting with Sous les toits de Paris ( Under the Roofs of Paris ); this was followed by Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), and Quatorze juillet ( Bastille Day ) (1933). All of these films portrayed an affectionate and idealized view of working class life, and they did much to create

511-499: A comic fantasy about transatlantic culture clash. Clair and Sherwood became close friends. In January 1936, Clair visited America for two weeks, checking out for future employment possibilities but still planning to remain with Korda. Korda however rejected Clair's next script and they parted company. Clair's remaining time in England led to only one more completed film, Break the News (1938),

584-465: A dramatic story, La Proie du vent ( The Prey of the Wind ), which met with commercial success. He remained at Albatros for his last two silent films, Un chapeau de paille d'Italie ( An Italian Straw Hat ) and Les Deux Timides ( Two Timid Souls ) (both 1928), in which he sought to translate the essentially verbal comedy of two plays by Labiche into works of silent cinema. While at Albatros, Clair met

657-533: A few more films in comic vein such as Tout l'or du monde ( All the Gold in the World ) (1961), they were not well received and he made his last film, Les Fêtes galantes ( The Lace Wars ), in 1965. Clair began his career as a journalist, and writing remained an important interest for him to which he increasingly turned in his later years. In 1926 he published a novel, Adams (translated into English as Star Turn ), about

730-642: A film on the subject of resistance and collaboration in the Anglo-Dutch film Niet tevergeefs / But Not in Vain . The same year he made a film with Carole Landis , Noose , released in the U.S. as The Silk Noose . In House on the Waterfront (1954) he directed Jean Gabin as a captain confronted by an unscrupulous smuggler and torn by his love for a young woman who is also loved by a younger man. In Gréville's last years he made Beat Girl (1959) with Adam Faith and

803-612: A horror film The Hands of Orlac (1960) with Mel Ferrer . His last film was L'Accident (1963) with Magali Noël based on a Frédéric David novel. Gréville was born in June 1906 in Nice , France, the adopted son of Franco-British parents. In May 1966, he died in hospital in Nice, thought to be the result of complications following a car accident. It was subsequently discovered through the 23andMe genetic testing of his daughter and grandson in 2017, that he

SECTION 10

#1732851497155

876-432: A journalist, becoming the editor of a new film supplement to a monthly magazine, Théâtre et Comœdia illustrés . He also visited Belgium and after an introduction from his brother Henri, he became an assistant to the director Jacques de Baroncelli on several films. In 1924, with the support of the producer Henri Diamant-Berger , Clair got the opportunity to direct his own first film, Paris qui dort ( The Crazy Ray ),

949-740: A literary work), the grand prix du roman (for a novel), the Grand prix de poésie de l'Académie française (for poetry), the Grand prix de philosophie (for a philosophical work), the Grand prix du cinéma (for film), and the grand prix Gobert (for a work on French history). The Académie Française intervened in June 2008 to oppose the French Government's proposal to constitutionally offer recognition and protection to regional languages ( Flemish , Alsatian , Basque , Breton , Catalan , Corsican , Occitan , Gascon , and Arpitan ). The current members of

1022-460: A member is known as l'habit vert , or green clothing. The habit vert , worn at the Académie's formal ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganization of the Institut de France . It consists of a long black coat and black-feathered bicorne , both richly embroidered with green leafy motifs, together with black trousers or skirt. Further, members other than clergy carry

1095-410: A musical comedy with Jack Buchanan and Maurice Chevalier . Returning to France, Clair attempted to make another film there in 1939, Air pur , which was to be a celebration of youth and childhood, but the outbreak of war interrupted filming and it was abandoned. In May 1940, Jean Giraudoux , then Minister of Information, suggested to Clair that the film profession should concentrate its resources in

1168-521: A mystery. Ren%C3%A9 Clair René Clair ( French pronunciation: [ʁəne klɛʁ] ; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette ( [ʁəne lysjɛ̃ ʃɔmɛt] ), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in

1241-495: A new generation of French critics and film-makers emerged who were impatient of the prevailing modes of film production, Clair found himself increasingly criticised as a representative of the cinéma de qualité , a "cinema of old men" dominated by nostalgia for their younger days. His status as a figure of the 'establishment' was further confirmed by his election to the Académie Française in 1960. Although he continued to make

1314-545: A popular romantic image of Paris which was seen around the world. These films were made at the Epinay Studios for Films Sonores Tobis, a French subsidiary of the German-owned Tobis company. When Chaplin made Modern Times in 1936, it was noted that some parts of it bore a marked similarity to scenes in À nous la liberté , and the production company Tobis launched a lawsuit for plagiarism against United Artists ,

1387-517: A short comic fantasy. Before it had been shown however, Clair was asked by Francis Picabia and Erik Satie to make a short film to be shown as part of their Dadaist ballet Relâche ; he made Entr'acte (1924), and it established Clair as a leading member of the Parisian avant-garde. Fantasy and dreams were also components of his next two films, but in 1926 Clair took a new direction when he joined Alexandre Kamenka's Films Albatros company to film

1460-583: A single body called the Institut de France . Napoleon Bonaparte , as First Consul , decided to restore the former academies, but only as "classes" or divisions of the Institut de France . The second class of the Institut was responsible for the French language, and corresponded to the former Académie Française . When King Louis XVIII came to the throne in 1816, each class regained the title of "Académie"; accordingly,

1533-408: A special number of Cahiers du Cinéma reviewing the current state of the French cinema in 1957 that Clair received one of his most positive appreciations: "A complete film author who, since the silent era, has brought to the French cinema intelligence, refinement, humour, an intellectual quality that is slightly dry but smiling and in good taste.... Whatever may follow in his rich career, he has created

SECTION 20

#1732851497155

1606-421: A speech to the Académie, which includes a eulogy for the member being replaced. This is followed by a speech made by one of the members. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking their colleagues for their election. On one occasion, one newly installed member, Georges de Porto-Riche , was not accorded a reception, as the eulogy he made of his predecessor

1679-487: A stage production of Musset 's On ne badine pas avec l'amour , in which Gérard Philipe gave one of his last performances before his death. In 1972 he staged Gluck's Orphée for the Paris Opéra. At the end of 1924, while Clair was working on Ciné-sketch for the theatre with France Picabia, he first met a young actress, Bronja Perlmutter, who subsequently appeared in his film Le Voyage imaginaire (1926) premiered at

1752-474: Is Golden ) (1947), which was set in 1906 and nostalgically evoked the world of early French film-making; its plot also created variations on Molière's L'École des femmes . Clair considered it one of his best post-war films. Literary inspirations also underpinned other films: Faust for La Beauté du diable ( Beauty and the Devil ) (1950); and Don Juan for Les Grandes Manœuvres (1955). In these two films and

1825-543: Is assigned a separate number. Candidates make their applications for a specific seat, not to the Académie in general: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. Since a newly elected member is required to eulogize their predecessor in the installation ceremony, it is not uncommon that potential candidates refuse to apply for particular seats because they dislike the predecessors. Members are known as "les immortels" ("the Immortals") in reference to

1898-434: Is continuing work on the ninth edition, of which the first volume ( A to Enzyme ) appeared in 1992, Éocène to Mappemonde was published in 2000, and Maquereau to Quotité in 2011. In 1778, the Académie attempted to compile a "historical dictionary" of the French language; this idea was later abandoned, the work never progressing past the letter  A . As the use of English terms by media increased over

1971-487: Is elected by a majority of votes from voting members. A quorum is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be performed at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Académie, the President of France, grants their approval. The President's approbation is only a formality. The new member is then installed at a meeting of the Académie. The new member must deliver

2044-449: Is not necessary to be a member of the literary profession to become a member. The Académie has included numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and senior Roman Catholic clergymen. Five French heads of state have been members – Adolphe Thiers , Raymond Poincaré , Paul Deschanel , Philippe Pétain , and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing – and one foreign head of state, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal , who

2117-670: The Battle of Verdun of World War I , was elected to the Académie in 1931 and, after his governorship of Vichy France in World War II , was forced to resign his seat in 1945. The Académie had its origins in an informal literary group deriving from the salons held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet during the late 1620s and early 1630s. The group began meeting at Valentin Conrart 's house, seeking informality. There were then nine members. Cardinal Richelieu ,

2190-575: The French Academy , is the principal French council for matters pertaining to the French language . The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister to King Louis XIII . Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution , it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte . It is the oldest of the five académies of

2263-677: The Royal College of Art in London. As well as many awards made for individual films, Clair received an honorary prize at the 11th Moscow International Film Festival in 1979 for his contribution to cinema. Place René Clair in Boulogne-Billancourt , on the outskirts of Paris and near the site of the former film studios in that district, is named after him. Acad%C3%A9mie Fran%C3%A7aise The Académie Française ( French pronunciation: [akademi fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ), also known as

Edmond T. Gréville - Misplaced Pages Continue

2336-552: The Académie's motto , À l'immortalité ("To Immortality"), which is inscribed on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu. One of the immortels is chosen by their colleagues to be the Académie's Perpetual Secretary. The Secretary is called "Perpetual", as though the holder serves for life, but holds the ability to resign; they may thereafter be styled as "Honorary Perpetual Secretary", with three post- World War II Perpetual Secretaries having previously resigned due to old age. The Perpetual Secretary acts as

2409-554: The Académie, either because their candidacies were rejected, because they were never candidates, or because they died before appropriate vacancies arose. Notable French authors who never became academicians include Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Jean-Paul Sartre , Joseph de Maistre , Honoré de Balzac , René Descartes , Denis Diderot , Romain Rolland , Charles Baudelaire , Gustave Flaubert , Molière , Marcel Proust , Jules Verne , Théophile Gautier , and Émile Zola . The official uniform of

2482-512: The English-language version of G. W. Pabst 's Mademoiselle Docteur . Gréville also directed Menaces (1938) with Mireille Balin and Erich von Stroheim , with von Stroheim playing an Austrian refugee who commits suicide following the Anschluss . With a heavy atmosphere charged with eroticism which characterizes his films, Gréville imposed his independence and original style on the cinema of

2555-534: The French cinema's true successor to Clair, notwithstanding the occasions of their mutual disdain. René Clair held the national honours of Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur , Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres , and Grand-croix de l'ordre national du Mérite . He received the Grand Prix du cinéma français in 1953. In 1956 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge . In 1960 he

2628-570: The French head of state has always served as the Académie's protector. From 1672 to 1805, the official meetings of the Académie were in the Louvre ; since 1805, the Académie Française has met in the Collège des Quatre-Nations (known now as the Palais de l'Institut). The remaining academies of the Institut de France also meet in the Palais de l'Institut. The Académie Française has forty seats, each of which

2701-456: The French language since the 1700s, and has criticized the view that anglicisms present an "invasion" on the French language. It distinguishes anglicisms into three categories: some that are useful to the French language and introduced vocabulary which did not have a French equivalent at the time (the Académie cites the word " confortable " as an example, from the English "comfortable"); others that are detrimental and only establish more confusion as

2774-533: The French language. The Académie publishes a dictionary of the French language, known as the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française , which is regarded as official in France. A special commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Académie compiles the work. The Académie has published thirteen editions of the dictionary, of which three were preliminary, eight were complete, and two were supplements for specialised words. These are: The Académie

2847-651: The Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1914 he was studying philosophy; his friends at that time included Raymond Payelle who became the actor and writer Philippe Hériat . In 1917, at the age of 18, he served as an ambulance driver in World War I , before being invalided out with a spinal injury. He was deeply affected by the horrors of war that he witnessed and gave expression to this in writing a volume of poetry called La Tête de l'homme (which remained unpublished). Back in Paris after

2920-478: The Roofs of Paris , 1930), Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), I Married a Witch (1942), and And Then There Were None (1945). René Clair was born and grew up in Paris in the district of Les Halles, whose lively and picturesque character made a lasting impression on him. His father was a soap merchant; he had an elder brother, Henri Chomette (born 1896). He attended the Lycée Montaigne and

2993-456: The UK and USA for more than a decade. Returning to France after World War II, he continued to make films that were characterised by their elegance and wit, often presenting a nostalgic view of French life in earlier years. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1960. Clair's best known films include Un chapeau de paille d'Italie ( The Italian Straw Hat , 1928), Sous les toits de Paris ( Under

Edmond T. Gréville - Misplaced Pages Continue

3066-408: The UK and USA made him still more widely known but did not show any marked development in his style or thematic concerns. It was in the post-war films that he made on his return to France that some critics have observed a new maturity and emotional depth, accompanied by a prevailing sense of melancholy but still framed by the elegance and wit that characterised his earlier work. However, in the 1950s

3139-612: The already dominant position of the Tuscan dialect of Florence as the model for Italian ; the Florentine academy had published its Vocabolario in 1612. During the French Revolution , the National Convention suppressed all royal academies, including the Académie Française . In 1792, the election of new members to replace those who died was prohibited; in 1793, the academies were themselves abolished. They were all replaced in 1795 by

3212-519: The care and diligence possible, to give exact rules to our language, to render it capable of treating the arts and sciences". The Académie Française has remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature. Richelieu's model, the first academy devoted to eliminating the "impurities" of a language, was the Accademia della Crusca , founded in Florence in 1582, which formalized

3285-470: The chief minister of France, made himself protector of the group, and in anticipation of the formal creation of the academy, new members were appointed in 1634. On 22 February 1635, at Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII granted letters patent formally establishing the council; according to the letters patent registered at the Parlement de Paris on 10 July 1637, the Académie Française was "to labor with all

3358-407: The cinema twice a year." André Bazin , the founding editor of Cahiers , made a more measured assessment: "René Clair has remained in a way a film-maker of the silent cinema. Whatever the quality and importance of his recent films, expression through the image always predominates over that of the word and one almost never misses the essence if one can only vaguely hear the dialogue." It was also in

3431-517: The critics who heralded the arrival of the French New Wave , especially those associated with Cahiers du Cinéma , found Clair's work old-fashioned and academic. François Truffaut wrote harshly of him after seeing The Flame of New Orleans : "We don't follow our elders in paying the same tribute to Renoir and Clair. There is no film by Clair which matches the invention and wit of Renoir's Tire au flanc .... Clair makes films for old ladies who go to

3504-407: The designer Lazare Meerson and the cameraman Georges Périnal who were to remain important collaborators with him for the next decade. By the end of the silent era, Clair was celebrated as one of the great names in cinema, alongside Griffith , Chaplin , Pabst and Eisenstein . As the author of all of his own scripts, who also paid close attention to every aspect of the making of a film, including

3577-436: The editing, Clair was one of the first French film-makers to establish for himself the full role of an auteur . Clair was initially sceptical about the introduction of sound to films, and called it "an unnatural creation". He then realised the creative possibilities that it offered, particularly, in his view, if the soundtrack was not used realistically; words and pictures need not, and indeed should not, be tied together in

3650-621: The end of World War II : Philippe Pétain , Abel Bonnard , Abel Hermant , and Charles Maurras were all excluded for their association with the Vichy regime . In total, 20 members have been expelled from the Académie. There have been a total of 742 immortels , of whom eleven have been women; Marguerite Yourcenar was the first woman to be elected, in 1980, but there have been 25 unsuccessful female candidacies, dating from 1874. Individuals who are not citizens of France may be, and have been, elected. Moreover, although most academicians are writers, it

3723-457: The institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on the language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language. The Académie comprises forty members, known as les immortels ("the immortals"). New members are elected by the members of the Académie itself . Academicians normally hold office for life, but they may resign or be dismissed for misconduct. Philippe Pétain , named Marshal of France after

SECTION 50

#1732851497155

3796-456: The intervening Les Belles de nuit ( Beauties of the Night ) (1952), the leading actor was Gérard Philipe who became a friend and a favourite performer for Clair. Porte des Lilas (1957) was a sombre film, set once again in a popular district of Paris with its picturesque inhabitants, for which the singer Georges Brassens was persuaded to give his only film performance. During the 1950s, as

3869-485: The modernization of the French orthography , has sometimes been criticized by many linguists for allegedly behaving in an overly conservative manner. For instance, in 1997, Lionel Jospin 's government began using the feminine noun " la ministre " to refer to a female minister, following the official practice of Canada , Belgium and Switzerland and a frequent, though until then unofficial, practice in France. The Académie insisted, in accordance with French grammar rules on

3942-487: The newly opened Studio des Ursulines . They married in 1926, and their son, Jean-François, was born in 1927. René Clair died at home on 15 March 1981, and he was buried privately at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Clair's reputation as a film-maker underwent a considerable reevaluation during the course of his own lifetime: in the 1930s he was widely seen as one of France's greatest directors, alongside Renoir and Carné , but thereafter his work's artifice and detachment from

4015-621: The original meaning of the word is distorted in translation; and others still that are useless or avoidable, a category of anglicisms used by "snobs" who use words from an English provenance to demarcate themselves from society and appear "in vogue". For the last category of anglicisms, the Académie writes that those words are typically short-lived in French parlance. The Académie Française has informed government officials to stop using English gaming terms like "e-sports", it should be "jeu video de competition". Likewise "streamer" should be "joueur-animateur en direct". The Académie, despite working on

4088-502: The point of departure. In July 1945 he went back to France for a short visit, and then returned finally in July 1946, having signed a contract with RKO for his next film to be made in France. Clair's American exile had allowed him to develop his characteristic vein of ironical fantasy with several commercially successful films, but there was some feeling that it had been at the expense of personal control and that his output there had not matched

4161-416: The prizes were created during the twentieth century, and only two prizes were awarded before 1780. In total, the Académie awards more than sixty prizes, most of them annually. The most important prize is the Grand prix de la francophonie , which was instituted in 1986, and is funded by the governments of France, Canada, Monaco, and Morocco. Other important prizes include the Grand prix de littérature (for

4234-409: The producers of Chaplin's film. Clair was embarrassed by this since he acknowledged his own debt to the spirit of Chaplin, and he refused to be associated with the action. After the immense success of these early sound films, Clair met with a major setback when his next film, Le Dernier Milliardaire ( The Last Billionaire / The Last Millionaire ) (1934), was a critical and commercial flop. While he

4307-501: The quality of his earlier work in France. Clair himself recognised that being employed by the highly organized American studios had allowed him to work in ideal circumstances: "In spite of the restrictions of the American system, it is possible, if one wishes, to take responsibility. In my four Hollywood films I managed to do what I wanted." Clair's first film on his return to France was the romantic comedy Le silence est d'or ( Silence

4380-473: The realities of life fell increasingly from favour. The avant-gardism of his first films, and especially Entr'acte , had given him a temporary notoriety, and a grounding in surrealism continued to underlie much of his comedy work. It was however the imaginative manner in which he overcame his initial scepticism about the arrival of sound which established his originality, and his first four sound films brought him international fame. Clair's years of working in

4453-483: The second class of the Institut became the Académie Française . Since 1816, the existence of the Académie Française has been uninterrupted. The President of France is the "protector" or patron of the Académie. Cardinal Richelieu originally adopted this role; upon his death in 1642, Pierre Séguier , the Chancellor of France , succeeded him. King Louis XIV adopted the function when Séguier died in 1672; since then,

SECTION 60

#1732851497155

4526-559: The south of country in Nice and Marseille – and if necessary establish a French production centre in the United States. It was with this last plan in mind that Clair and his family, along with Julien Duvivier , departed for America, but by the time he reached New York the project had already fallen through and he went straight on to Hollywood where several studios were interested in employing him. He made his first American film for Universal Studios, The Flame of New Orleans (1941), but it

4599-528: The time. He stopped directing films during the Second World War and the Occupation - xenophobia and anti-Semitism ruined or put a stop to some careers, among film-makers those of Léonide Moguy and Pierre Chenal for example, both French Jews, and the half-British Gréville, and took away production and distribution companies belonging to Jews like the father and son distributors Siriztky. In 1948 he made

4672-474: The traditional use of the masculine noun, on the use of " le ministre " for a minister of either gender. In 2017, 77 linguists retaliated with an opinion column to denounce the "incompetence and anachronism of the Académie". Use of either form remains highly controversial. The Académie Française is responsible for awarding several different prizes in various fields (including literature, painting, poetry, theatre, cinema, history, and translation). Almost all of

4745-584: The war, he started a career as a journalist at the left-wing newspaper L'Intransigeant . Having met the music-hall singer Damia and written some songs for her, Clair was persuaded by her to visit Gaumont studios in 1920 where a film was being cast and he then agreed to take on a leading role in Le Lys de la vie, directed by Loïe Fuller and Gabrielle Sorère . He adopted the stage-name of René Clair, and several other acting jobs followed, including Parisette for Louis Feuillade . In 1922 he extended his career as

4818-536: The years, the Académie has tried to prevent the Anglicization of the French language. For example, the Académie has recommended the avoidance of loanwords from modern English (such as walkman , computer , software and e-mail ), in favour of neologisms, i.e. newly coined French words derived from existing ones ( baladeur , ordinateur , logiciel , and courriel respectively). The Académie has also noted that anglicisms have been present in

4891-421: Was Ashkenazim Jewish, likely from the area of Odessa, based on the present whereabouts of his closest genetic relations today. Family speculation suggests that his parents fled the 1905 Russian pogrom to Marseilles, where he may have been discovered in the Nice hospital his English father, a Salvation Army colonel and Protestant pastor, was associated with. His true origin and that of his biological parents, remains

4964-432: Was also the first African elected, in 1983. Other famous members include Voltaire ; Montesquieu ; Victor Hugo ; Alexandre Dumas, fils ; Émile Littré ; Louis Pasteur ; Louis de Broglie ; and Henri Poincaré . Many notable French writers have not become members of the Académie Française . In 1855, the writer Arsène Houssaye devised the expression "forty-first seat" for deserving individuals who were never elected to

5037-406: Was considered unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it. Georges Clemenceau refused to be received, as he feared being received by his enemy, Raymond Poincaré . Members remain in the Académie for life. The council may dismiss an academician for grave misconduct. The first dismissal occurred in 1638, when Auger de Moléon de Granier was expelled for theft. The most recent dismissals occurred at

5110-461: Was elected to the Académie Française ; he was not the first film-maker so honoured (he was preceded by Marcel Pagnol (1946), Jean Cocteau (1955), and Marcel Achard (1959)) but he was the first to be elected primarily as a film-maker. In 1994 the Académie established the Prix René-Clair as an annual prize awarded to a distinguished film-maker. In 1967 he received an honorary doctorate from

5183-519: Was made for a different studio. In 1941 Clair was stripped of his French citizenship by the Vichy government, though this was later reversed. It was also in 1941 that he learned of the death of his brother Henri Chomette in France from polio. In 1943, he was planning to go to Algeria to organise the Service Cinématographique de l'Armée, but funding for the project was withdrawn just as he was on

5256-459: Was such a commercial failure that for a time Clair's career as a director was in the balance. After more than a year's delay, his next film was I Married a Witch (1942), followed by It Happened Tomorrow (1944), both of which did respectably well, and then And Then There Were None (1945), which turned out to be an exceptional commercial success despite being perhaps the least personal of his Hollywood ventures. Each of Clair's American films

5329-465: Was visiting London for the film's British première, he met Alexander Korda who offered him a contract to work in England. He accepted, and began a lengthy period of exile from film-making in France. Clair's contract with Korda's London Films was for two years and it envisaged three films. Because of his limited English, he collaborated with the American dramatist Robert E. Sherwood as script-writer for his first film, The Ghost Goes West (1935),

#154845