Jacques Becker

 Jacques Becker




Casque d'Or (1952)

Touchez pas au Grisbi (1954)

Le Trou (1960)



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3. Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)


Despite the critical acclaim of "Casque d'Or," Jacques Becker felt he needed to go into a more commercial effort to regain his status and credibility as a filmmaker. With his 1954 film "Touchez Pas au Grisbi," he tapped into the commercial market with an exciting gangster flick. Although this would be the only gangster flick of his career, it would kick off a new desire for this genre in the years to come in France. On top of this, the leading man, Jean Gabin, regained notoriety with the public, despite some who would consider him representative of an older time in French cinema. "Touchez Pas au Grisbi" did exactly what Becker hoped and perhaps even then some.



2. Casque d'Or (1952)


Centering on a prostitute caught in a love triangle during France's Belle Époque, Jacques Becker's 1952 film "Casque d'Or" is often cited by many French filmmakers as being one of the most significant works of the 1950s. Starring the French icon Simone Signoret, the film creates palpable drama through its romantic tensions, along with the inevitable violence that is linked to these tensions. All our protagonist really wants is to find love and appreciation, but any attempts at removing herself from the confines of her determined structure result in nothing but tragedy. Safe to say, sometimes we are held in by forces that want to use and abuse us and to top that off, innocent men are trapped by their circumstances, to which blind justice cares not for context.




1. Le Trou (1960)


As the decade of the 1960s began, the New Wave film movement took its place in the stead of France's 'quality of cinema,' as the Cahiers du Cinema lads affectionately called it. As it was heading out the door, one of its masters, Jacques Becker, released a monument to its demise. Dying only a few weeks after filming had wrapped, Becker takes elements from both French films from the past decade - "A Man Escaped" meets "Rififi" - as well as its true origin sources, and crafts something which felt utterly original and unique. Framed around a group of men executing a prison escape, "Le Trou" somehow manages to pull the viewer into the intimacy of its characters and their coordinated efforts and makes you feel a part of both the comradery and the escape plan. With the film's finale, Becker does something on par with his ouevre, making something as memorable as his finale in "Casque d'or." 

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