ANDRÉE CLEMENT CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE @ ROXIE JULY 26

We will honor the most unusual actress in France's "Old Wave" era, Andrée Clément (1918-1954) with a special double bill at San Francisco's Roxie Theatre on Thursday, July 26th.

Clément made only 13 films due to long-term health issues (she died at age 35 from the complications of tuberculosis) but she made an indelible impression in post-WWII French cinema with an intensity of performance that caused Louis Jouvet (who directed her stage performances in the early '40s) to call her "my angel of darkness" and left Serge Reggiani slack-jawed with wonder after his scenes with her in Serge Debecque's mysterious melodrama COINCIDENCES (1947).

We kiddingly call Clément the "original Goth girl" due to the youthful intensity she embodies--a cross between attractive gawkiness and sinister (self-)possession. She first manifests this during a brief appearance in Robert Bresson's LES ANGES DU PÉCHÉ (1943) as a young nun best described as "overweening with devotion."

But our MIDSUMMER NIGHTMARE! event on July 26th showcases two of Clément's more substantial roles: first, in Henri Decoin's LA FILLE DU DIABLE (aka DAUGHTER OF THE DEVIL, 1946) where she embodies a desolate psychological space as a young girl masterminding a gang of provincial thugs. Her performance is unsettling and unique--and started a brief vogue for such a character type to appear in other films (in the aforementioned COINCIDENCES, and in an initially more conventional role rewritten for her in the film BETHSABÉ).

We follow LA FILLE DU DIABLE with Marcel Blistene's MACADAM, the first post-WWII descent into the "back streets of Paris," where Clément is the long-suffering daughter of a manipulative matron (the legendary Françoise Rosay) who runs a brothel from her modest Parisian flat!

MACADAM has strong "star power" in its other roles, with significant screen time for Simone Signoret and Paul Meurisse, who would shortly become major stars. But it's the poignant and ultimately shocking sub-plot of the relationship between the madam and her daughter that provides the key emotional payoff in the film--and it's Andrée Clément's performance that stays with you when the lights come up.

Clément's 100th birthday occurs on August 7, and it's encouraging to know that someone in the world of cinephilia is paying tribute to such a uniquely talented and compelling actress. It's a pity that her entire filmography isn't being shown in 2018 to commemorate the all-too-brief brilliance she shared on-screen. Long live the original "Goth girl"!!