René Clément

Versatile, gifted director whose early documentary experience was effectively employed for the making of "Battle of the Rails" (1945), a painstaking chronicle of the French Resistance movement. Clement also made the superior thrillers "Les Maudit" (1947) and "Purple Noon" (1960), and the moody and atmospheric Zola adaptation "Gervaise" (1956), but his greatest effort was the touching, yet unsentimental "Forbidden Games" (1952), about a child adrift in war-torn France. His later work lacked the spark of earlier years. Clement's last feature was 1975's "The Baby Sitter." He died at age 82 in southern France on March 17, 1996.