Jacques Becker

Jacques Becker
Born	(1906-09-15)15 September 1906 Paris, France
Died	21 February 1960(1960-02-21) (aged 53) Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter Film director
Years active	1935–1960
Notable work	Casque d'Or Le Trou Touchez pas au grisbi
Spouse	Françoise Fabian

Jacques Becker (French: [bɛkɛʁ]; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French screenwriter and film director.

Becker first worked in the 1930s as an assistant to director Jean Renoir during what is considered the latter's peak period, including such works as Partie de campagne (1936) and La Grande Illusion (1937). In the early part of World War II, Becker was held in a German prisoner-of-war camp for a year. During the Nazi occupation of France, he became a film director in his own right and he also joined the Comité de libération du cinéma français. He would go on to direct the period romance Casque d'or (1952), the influential gangster film Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), and the prison escape drama Le Trou (1959). While he remains lesser-known internationally than peers such as Marcel Carné and Renoir, Becker is now nonetheless regarded as a major French filmmaker. It was not always so. The critics who, at the time of Becker's death, were recognized as the filmmakers of the French New Wave were among the very few writers of their time to recognize and exalt Becker's artistry. (For that matter, he had hinted, in “Rendezvous in July,” at their future existence.) Their affinities were predicted even before. As early as 1944, Becker celebrated the artist of filmmaking as “the auteur (i.e., author) of films,” and, in a 1947 article titled “The Author of Films: A Complete Author?,” he went into detail on the subject of the director as “auteur,” saying that “The author of a talking film tells a story with images, words, and sounds,” and emphasizing the importance of directors working on their own screenplays and making their films “personal,” whether the subject was one of their own invention or one provided by another writer. Becker proved his ideas with his films, even before the future New Wave, following in his footsteps, did the same. His films don't merely reflect and criticize the moods and mores of the times; they embody and foretell the artistic history of the era, the future history of the cinema.

One reason Becker has been so regularly overlooked — even with such acknowledged classics like Le Trou, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, and Casque d’Or on his relatively slender résumé — is because he is so hard to pin down tonally or narratively. He made period pieces, romantic dramas, comedies, gangster flicks. His work displays a certain patience toward his material and a generosity towards his characters, but often to varied ends; there's no overt, consistent Jacques Becker “feeling” or “sensibility.” At least, not in the traditional sense.

An admiring François Truffaut once wrote, “Becker is an intimate and realistic filmmaker who is in love with verisimilitude and everyday realities.

Jean-Paul Gaultier told the New Yorker that Becker's 1945 film Falbalas made him want to go into fashion. The film is about a Parisian dressmaker who seduces his best friend's fiancée. It provided a detailed look at the fashion industry of the time, and shaped Gaultier's ideas of what that world would be like.

Becker was called by critic-director Bertrand Tavernier “the finest French filmmaker of the ’40s and ’50s, the most even in quality, the smartest in his choices."

Personal life

Born in Paris, Becker was of an upper-class background. His father Louis Becker, of Lorraine ascendance was corporate director for Fulmen, a battery manufacturer; his Irish mother, Margaret Burns, held a fashion house in rue Cambon near Chanel in Paris.

Becker married actress Françoise Fabian in 1957, and his son Jean Becker also became a film director. Both his wife and his son were born on the same day (10 May).

As a member of the Resistance, Becker defended H.G. Clouzot and Robert Le Vigan against the hysteria of the post-war purges.

Becker met Renoir through Paul Cézanne (son of the Cézanne), and the two formed a relationship steeped in a love for cinema (both were quite fond of von Stroheim's Greed [1925]).

Death

Becker died at the age of 53 in 1960 and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Filmography

Director

Year	Title	English title	Notes
1935	Tête de turc		Medium-length film (42 mins)
1935	Le Commissaire est bon enfant, le gendarme est sans pitié		Medium length film (40 mins)
1940	L'Or du Cristobal	Cristobal's Gold	Becker left the film, which was completed by Jean Stelli
1942	Dernier atout	The Trump Card
1943	Goupi Mains Rouges	It Happened at the Inn
1945	Falbalas	Paris Frills	Filmed in 1944
1947	Antoine et Antoinette	Antoine and Antoinette
1949	Rendez-vous de juillet	Rendezvous in July
1951	Édouard et Caroline	Edward and Caroline
1952	Casque d'or	Casque d'or / Golden Marie
1953	Rue de l'Estrapade	Rue de l'Estrapade / Françoise Steps Out
1954	Touchez pas au grisbi	Touchez pas au grisbi / Grisbi / Honour Among Thieves
1954	Ali Baba et les Quarante Voleurs	Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
1957	Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin	The Adventures of Arsène Lupin
1958	Montparnasse 19 / Les Amants de Montparnasse	Montparnasse 19 / The Lovers of Montparnasse	Becker took over the film from Max Ophüls who died while filming
1960	Le Trou	Le Trou / The Night Watch / The Hole

Assistant Director

Year	Title	English title	Directed by	Notes
1931	Y'en a pas deux comme Angélique		Roger Lion
1931	Allô... Allô...		Roger Lion	Short
1932	La Nuit du carrefour	Night at the Crossroads	Jean Renoir
1932	Boudu sauvé des eaux	Boudu Saved from Drowning	Jean Renoir
1933	Chotard et Cie	Chotard and Company	Jean Renoir
1933	Madame Bovary	Madame Bovary	Jean Renoir	Uncredited
1936	Partie de campagne	A Day in the Country	Jean Renoir	Released 1946
1936	La vie est à nous	Life Belongs to Us	Jean Renoir & collective	Becker directed one short sequence of this anthology film and was an assistant director
1936	Les Bas-fonds	The Lower Depths	Jean Renoir
1937	La Grande Illusion	Grand Illusion	Jean Renoir
1938	La Marseillaise	La Marseillaise	Jean Renoir
1940	L'Héritier de Mondésir	The Mondesir Heir	Albert Valentin

External links

• Jacques Becker at IMDb
• They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?