Historical Change in the Critical Discourse on Rene Clair's Work

勒内·克莱尔曾被认为是法国最具代表性的电影导演之一，在他漫长的电影生涯中，他经历了许多赞誉和批评。本研究重新审视法国电影评论界对克莱尔作品评价的历史变迁，尤其是与其“自我反思”电影观的关系，以厘清电影话语“当代性”的意义和边界。除了审查大量相关文件外，（这是我从事了几年的工作），我做了两次短暂的研究旅行到巴黎，在那里我从事自己的文件工作在国家图书馆，阿森纳图书馆（保存着死者家属捐赠的“勒内·克莱尔档案”）、电影图书馆等，2003年春天，我还参观了法国电影资料馆和英国电影学院（伦敦）的一些相关电影的研究放映会。作为研究结果，我提交的报告审查了克莱尔的电影，他的文本和陈述，以及对每部电影的评论，从他作为电影导演的处女作到他最后几年的活动，它的结论是，克莱尔的特别是自我反思的电影概念，他追求或多或少明显在他的职业生涯中，并不总是适当的争论，特别是由新浪潮的评论家和导演，他们的电影愿景是非常接近克莱尔的。这表明了电影话语的任何活动所固有的那种任意性，因此允许我们相对化它可能倡导的“当代性”。经过一些额外的调查，我打算在不久的将来以书的形式出版这份报告。

Rene Clair, who was once considered as one of the most representative French film directors, experienced much praise and censure through his long years career. This research reinvestigates the historical change of evaluation which arouse in French film criticism concerning Clair's work, especially in relation to his "self-reflexive" filmic conception, in order that we may clarify the significance and the boundary of "contemporariness" of the cinematic discourse.During the Grant-in-Aid research period 2001-2002, in addition to the examination of a large number of related documents (a work with which I proceed for several years), I made two short research trips to Paris, where I engaged myself in the documentation work at Bibliotheque Nationale, Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal (which conserves "Rene Clair Archives", donated by the bereaved family), Bibliotheque du Film, etc., as well as I attended at the research viewings of some related films at such film archives as the Cinematheque francaise and the British Film Institute (London), which I visited in spring 2003.The report I submit as the result of, this research examins Clair's films, his texts and statements, and the criticism of each film, ranging from his debut as a film director to his last years' activities, and it concludes that Clair's particularly self-reflexive film conception, which he pursued more or less distinctly throughout his career, was not always properly argued, especially by the New Wave critics and directors, whose filmic visions were otherwise very close to Clair's. This demonstrates the kind of arbitrariness inherent in any activity of cinematic discourse, and therefore permits us to relativize the "contemporariness" it might advocate.After some additional investigations, I intend to publish the report in book form in the near future.