René Clément
René Clément (1913–1996) was a French director and screenwriter, one of the most accomplished figures of postwar French cinema before the rise of the New Wave. Trained as an architect, he came to filmmaking through wartime documentary and made his feature debut with the Resistance drama La Bataille du Rail. His subsequent work moved across literary adaptation, war drama, and elegant thrillers shot on location across Europe and North Africa. His acclaimed films include La Bataille du Rail, The Damned, Forbidden Games (which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), Gervaise, Purple Noon, Joy House, Is Paris Burning?, and The Day and the Hour.