Philippe Clair moved to Paris in 1950 to study acting at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris. He won the Bernstein and College Stars awards, honors given to the best young Parisian actors. He performed on stage and television with major directors and writers in shows such as L'Affaire des poisons directed by Raymond Rouleau, Une femme libre by Armand Salacrou, and Les Îles fortunées by Simon Gantillon. Eventually he got a show of his own and became an important French humorist, mounting such works as the Judeo-Arabic Purée de nous z'otres , and Le Cid in Oued Bel based on the book by Edmond Brua. He specialized in improvisation and in writing comedy sketches. In 1965 Clair directed his first film, Déclic et des claques with Annie Girardot, the comic misadventures of a young pied-noir in Paris. He continued his work as a singer: in 1967, his sketch Rien Nasser de courir which satirized the Six-Day War was banned because of its political overtones. In 1970, Philippe Clair became the leading director of popular comedy. His humor usually had a French Algerian flavor. Most of his films were commercial successes, although sometimes they were panned by critics who called them vulgar or overacted. His films were often plagiarized by other directors with typical French disrespect or–as the French call it–. His 1971 filmLa Grande Java launched the comedy careers of the members of the French band Les Charlots. He went on to use band member Aldo Maccione in :fr:La Grande Maffia|The Great Maffia, :fr:Plus beau que moi, tu meurs|Plus beau que moi, tu meurs , and :fr:Tais-toi quand tu parles!|Tais-toi quand tu parles! . He made several surreal films, such as :fr:Le Führer en folie|Le Führer en folie , which featured Henri Tisot in the role of Adolf Hitler and in which Michel Galabru plays the role of a football referee. In 1984, he managed the greatest coup of his career by casting Jerry Lewis in the film Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir . In 2013 journalist and filmmaker Gilles Botineau joined with Philippe Clair to produce a documentary portrait titled, Plus drôle que lui, tu meurs . The film, lasting 55 minutes covered Clair's entire career, focusing especially on his vision of comedy. Clair retired in 1990 at the age of 60. However, he returned with a production he wrote in 2013 titled, Help, Philippe Clair returns.
Reception
Philippe Clair was not always treated kindly by the critics. Critic John Tulard in the "Dictionary of French directors" said, "His work is incredibly stupid and vulgar". The weekly French magazineTélérama opined, "Every film by Philippe Clair is worse than the last, and yet it never stops". In the 1980s Clair's style of popular comedy went out of favor in France and he stopped producing films. But critic Louis Skorecki maintained that the 1996 filmLa Vérité si je mens! , a classic Jewish-Algerian comedy, was simply a remake of Philippe Clair's first film, Click and slaps.
