He studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts in the class of the painter Maurice Denis.
In 1925 he joined the French subsidiary of the Paramount film company as a set-designer and painter, and soon took on the role of an assistant director.
[1] Serge de Poligny's first significant film as a director in France was an adaptation of Colette's novel Claudine à l'école in 1937.
During the German Occupation in the 1940s, he made two films which have been seen as significant contributions to the genre of fantastique in the cinema.
[3] His film career concluded in the mid-1950s, and he then devoted himself to the production of large-scale live shows, such as the commemorations of the Liberation of Paris (1964 & 1965); the Nuits de l'armée, and horse-riding shows like the Fêtes mondiales du cheval.