Maurice Cloche; Acclaimed French Director

Maurice Cloche, 82, a film director best known for his Oscar-winning movie “Monsieur Vincent.” The film, a moving dramatization of the life of St. Vincent de Paul and starring Pierre Fresnay, won the Academy Award in 1947 for best foreign film. It also was honored as the best film in France that year. Cloche’s career spanned more than a half-century and included spy thrillers as well as films with religious and social themes. His best-known films include “La Cage aux Oiseaux,” (The Bird Cage); “Le Docteur Laennec,” the story of the inventor of the stethoscope; “Ne de Pere Inconnu,” (Father Unknown); and “La Cage aux Filles” (The Girl Cage). In 1940, Cloche founded a film society for young talent. It later became France’s leading film school, the Institute of Advanced Film Studies. In Bordeaux on Tuesday of the complications of Parkinson’s Disease.