Pierre Clémenti

Pierre Clémenti was beautiful… Especially in Belle de Jour and Porcile (Pigsty).

Goodnight!

Beautiful and deeply strange. He was avery important actor of the 60’s and 70’s. His key credits include

Partner
La Cicatrice Interieure
Les Idoles
Le Pont du Nord
Severed Heads

He died of AIDS.

Wikipedia is telling me ‘’He died of liver cancer in 1999’’…..

Don’t forget (Bertolucci’s masterpiece) THE CONFORMIST.

It was AIDS, Jesse. James Toback told me all about it.

And oh yes, “The Conformist”

So great as the proud, imperious hood in Belle de Jour with the sock full of holes and the bad teeth. Total opposite of Belle’s straitlaced, glamour-boy husband. That’s the great subversive thing about that movie, the husband is more conventionally attractive than the lover. He’s also good in a very opaque, physically demanding role in Pasolini’s Pigsty. He got a shout-out from Patti Smith in her song “Space Monkey” — “Pierre Clementi, snot full of ’caine!” whatever that means.

Aside from Conformist and Belle… I just realized this cat was on a lot of movies. Yeah, Pasolini’s "Porcile’’ he was a cannibal. There’s also one I believe called “Cannibals” ( I must be drunk ‘cause I couldn’t remember much ‘bout it, but he’s with Brett Ekland, that’s how I remembered ). “Steppenwolf” with Dominique Sanda – man, always with lovely broads! Oh, and wasn’t he on “Sweet Movie”, head shaven and bathing on sugar? Sugar! Dang, I gotta see that flick again…

Pierre Clémenti was not only a very talented actor but also a (pretty underrated) experimental film director. His most important works are Visa de censure (1968), La révolution n’est qu’un debut. Continuons le combat (1968), New old (1979) and Soleil (1988).

Pierre Clémenti was one of a kind. Completely graceful, but always, I suspect, a little out of this world in a literal sense. He was arrested and imprisoned in Italy for a drug-connected offence and the experience devastated him – see the difference between the Clémenti of the late sixties and the Clémenti in ‘Le Pont du Nord’. As if it clashed with everything he’d ever dreamed of. I’d love to see the films he directed.

Looking at the picture above – anyone care to imagine him playing Artaud?

Clementi’s career began in 1963 when Alain Delon picked him up on the way to Italy to star in “The Leopard.” Visconti took one look at Clementi and immediately cast him as one of Burt Lancaster’s sons. It was his very first film.

i read that article about him in film comment. it was the first time i had heard of his experimental film career. sounded very interesting. ill have to check around the web for some of his works.

No one mentioned his brief (but typically great & memorable) turn in Bunuel’s The Milky Way as an angel of Death – dressed immaculately but with bare feet, squishing his toes down into the mud…And he was the engine, in Belle du jour: the film lifts off, with his appearance in it…

>Looking at the picture above – anyone care to imagine him playing Artaud?

I haven’t yet seen the film with Sami Frey (who also starred, coincidentally, in Sweet Movie); but Frey-as-Artaud seems uncannily close…

His performance in PARTNER. by Bertolucci is incomparable.

Yes, Frey could look the part – but Clémenti could credibly be attuned to it, as well as looking appropriate enough not to be shocking. I avoided the Frey film, although I saw the documentary which came out at the same time: I think I’d have gone out of my way to see not just ‘Clémenti as Artaud’ but ’Clémenti’s Artaud’, feeling that the collaboration would make sense.

Actually in “The Milky Way” he plays the Devil.

Bunuel was so good at typecasting.

As a matter of fact, Pierre Clementi played also opposite Catherine Deneuve in a mainstream movie right after Belle de Jour.

The movie was exquisitely written by Nina Companeez, directed by Michel Deville, and was shot in the country near Bordeaux in numerous small beautiful castles. It was a libertine tale, taking place around 1750.

Clementi was excellent, portraying a teenager discovering life thanks to numerous lovely women, whether maids or countesses. The dialogue was witty, charming and cruel. Michel Piccoli and Michelle Morgan were part of a wonderful cast.

So sorry if my post appears twice… :)

I’d love to get my hands on his experimental works, having always enjoyed his leftfield choice of roles and rather emaciated glamour.

Even in the more minor films such as The Designated Victim (English title) he exerts a strong screen presence that is hard to igonre.

@ David

Thanks for posting those clips – they’ve certainly whet my appetite for more! I know there’s a French DVD release of most of them somewhere.

I’ll need to watch a few more times, but The Virgin’s Bed and The Revolution… are particularly striking. The former is strangely erotic, but then Clementi is sexually attractive in a gamine way.

He was a unique combination of the airily “feminine” and the scarily tough. You can see the former in “Benjamin” and the latter in “Belle de Jour.”

Incidentally Jacques Rivette was entrqaced by Marc’Os “Les Idoles.” It was a stage show that was later filmed. He cast all three of its stars in various projects. Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Kalfon starred in “L’Amour Fou.” He wanted Clementi in “Out 1” but couldn’t get him as he was in jail at the time. But he was available for “Le Pont du Nord” which is a variation on “Out 1” thematics.

i dont think the shorts show off that much talent behind the camera.

but im glad i got to watch them.

For a more visually exciting film from Clementi, check out Visa de Censure X, a veritable whirlwind of fevered images – some exciting rapid editing and punchy colour pallets too.

We’ll be having a Clementi-fest in Philadelphia at the end of July. Details forthcoming!

Stunning actor who can portray polar opposite of nature, masulculine & feminine, innocent & evil, sacred & profane…. Sometimes he puts his unique spectram into one character so he becomes infinitely ambiguous and gives the movie unexpected twist! Almost miraculous a existence!

I have a crush on Clémenti.