Pierre Clémenti could make a dangerous young man seem painfully vulnerable without making him safe. We value the physical directness of his acting, above all in Belle de Jour, though repeated casting as an enigmatic outsider could narrow his work.
Fi1m perspective
In Belle de Jour (1967), Pierre Clémenti makes Marcel's attractiveness difficult to separate from his cruelty. His gangster client has the softness Clémenti could bring to dangerous young men, and Luis Buñuel makes that combination count. We were unsettled by finding Marcel seductive when his sadism was so apparent. Catherine Deneuve's troubling calm helps the film keep its distance from the sexual fantasies it presents; Clémenti gives us someone harder to regard so coolly.
The Leopard (1963) finds a different use for him, in the small early role of Francesco Paolo. Visconti's three-hour period drama belongs to Burt Lancaster's Prince, and we would not recommend it primarily as a chance to watch Clémenti. We recommend it strongly despite stretches that do not earn their slowness. His place in this classical production matters as a reminder that the rebellious young men were a later pattern of casting, not the whole of his work.
The breakthrough of Belle de Jour was followed by work with directors prepared to use his intensity. He played the young cannibal in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Pigsty (1969) and Lino in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970), while Buñuel cast him again in The Milky Way (1969). Such parts made sense for a physical actor, but repeated casting as an outsider has its cost. Eventually an audience can start deciding who a character is before the actor has had much chance to do anything.
He also directed diary-like experimental films, beginning in the late 1960s. Their chief interest is as personal records of independent filmmaking, and they offer another way into his work beyond the parts other directors gave him. Later acting appearances were often smaller, with Le Pont du Nord (1982) bringing a collaboration with Jacques Rivette. A list of major roles alone would miss much of what occupied him. Start with Belle de Jour; the film offers little reassurance, and Marcel offers less.
Biography
Pierre Clémenti was a French actor, filmmaker and writer. Born in Paris on 28 September 1942, he studied drama at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier and ENSATT before beginning his career in the theatre.
His early screen roles included a part in Jack of Spades (1960). He appeared as Francesco Paolo in Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (1963) and as Marcel in Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967). Clémenti worked with directors including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci and Dušan Makavejev on films such as Pigsty (1969), The Conformist (1970) and Sweet Movie (1974). In 1972 he was imprisoned in Italy on drug charges but released after 17 months; he later wrote a book about the experience.
He remained active in theatre and experimental cinema until his death in Paris on 27 December 1999.
