Jacques Becker

[DarkImbecile]

Jacques Becker (1906 - 1960)



"When you direct, you write dialogue sparingly because you look to give the most of life and truth possible to the direction and acting."

Filmography

Feature Directing
L'Or du Cristobal AKA Cristobal's Gold (1940) [Becker left the film, completed by Jean Stelli]
Dernier atout AKA The Trump Card (1942)
Goupi Mains Rouges AKA It Happened at the Inn (1943)
Falbalas AKA Paris Frills (1945)
Antoine et Antoinette (1947)
Rendez-vous de julliet AKA Rendezvous in July (1949)
Édouard et Caroline (1951)
Casque d'or AKA Golden Marie (1952)
Rue de l'Estrapade AKA François Steps Out (1953)
Touchez pas au grisbi AKA Honour Among Thieves (1954)
Ali Baba et le Quarante Voleurs AKA Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1954)
Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin (1957)
Montparnasse 19 AKA The Lovers of Montparnasse (1958)
Le Trou AKA The Hole AKA The Night Watch (1960)

Shorts
"Tête de turc" (1935)
"Le Commissaire est bon enfant, le gendarme est sans pitié" (1935)
La vie est à nous (1936) [collectively directed with seven others, including Jean Renoir]

Books
Jacques Becker by Claude Naumann (2000) [French]

Web Resources
Senses of Cinema "Great Directors" page on Becker

Forum Discussion
270 Casque d'or
271 Touchez pas au grisbi
Montparnasse 19
129 Le trou

[david hare]

Not sure where to put this, since I couldn't find a dedicated Becker thread in the "filmmakers" section...

An Essential Retrospective of the French Filmmaker Jacques Becker at the Newly Renovated Film Forum

There have been more than half a dozen restorations of Becker’s films over the last year or two, all of them wonderful. They were released by both Canal and Gaumont and all are English subbed. I could not recommend a better investment than tracking these down.

I underestimated him however many years ago. He is a totally major director in the French canon and Tavernier gives him a bountiful coverage in his sublime Journey Through French cinema. He’s at least Melville’s equal. Possibly greater.

[senseabove]

My local rep is doing a Becker retrospective right now. I haven't been able to get to all of it, unfortunately, but Falbalas was the highlight of all the movies I saw last month. The screening was a DCP, so I'm hoping its in the pipeline for BD release, though it didn't appear much if any work had been done to clean it up.

[Stefan Andersson]

Interesting info about the new SC Le Trou blu:

"the Studiocanal blu-ray edition of Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960) includes a 180-page book, Explorer 'Le Trou' de Jacques Becker, with texts by Jean-Baptiste Thoret, Antoine de Baecque, Bernard Benoniel and Olivier Père. The second part of the publication offers archival documents, reviews and interviews, and it concludes with the first 32 pages of the orginal film script, including the minutes that were cut by the producer right after the release." (my bold)

Source: https://sabzian.be/note/new-book-releases-winter-2021

Related info here: https://seances-speciales.fr/wp-content ... ignant.pdf - see p. 4