Purple Noon

René Clément is the only French director to have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film twice, for The Walls of Malapaga (1951), and for Forbidden Games (1953). He directed his first film, César chez les Gaulois, an animated short, in 1931. In 1934, he met Jacques Tati and began working with him, including on his first short film, the light-hearted comedy Soigne ton gauche (1936). In 1937, he traveled with archaeologist Jules Barthoux to Yemen to shoot a documentary. During World War II, he continued focusing on documentaries, and his short film Ceux du rail (1943) caught the attention of the French film cooperative, which chose him to direct La bataille du rail (1946). This would become his first feature film and a major success, earning him the Jury Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. Clément soon became one of the most prominent French filmmakers of the post-war era. Six years later, his greatest success, Forbidden Games (1952), won the Golden Lion in Venice and the Academy Award. His reputation grew in the United States, where he worked with stars such as Jane Fonda in Joy House (1964), Charles Bronson in Rider on the Rain (1969), and Faye Dunaway in The Deadly Trap (1971). To date, Clément remains the most awarded French filmmaker at the Cannes Film Festival, having received five prizes between 1946 and 1954.