Jacques Becker
| Jacques Becker | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 September 1906 Paris, France |
| Died |
21 February 1960 (aged 53) Paris, France |
| Occupation |
Screenwriter Film director |
| Years active | 1935–1960 |
| Notable work |
Casque d'Or Le Trou Touchez pas au grisbi |
| Spouse(s) | 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 La Grande Illusion (1938) and The Rules of the Game (1939). Part of the Comité de libération du cinéma français, the Nazis held Becker in prison for a year during the German occupation of France in World War II. During the occupation, he became a director in his own right. 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 nonetheless regarded as a major French filmmaker, with Casque d'Or held in high esteem among film critics.[1]
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.[2]
Becker married actress Françoise Fabian, and his son Jean Becker also became a film director.
Death
Becker died at the age of fifty-three in 1960 and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.
Filmography
Director
- Tête de turc (1935)
- Le Commissaire est bon enfant, le gendarme est sans pitié (1935 short) (co-director)
- Cristobal's Gold (1940) (some scenes)
- Dernier atout (1942)
- It Happened at the Inn (1943)
- Paris Frills (1945)
- Antoine et Antoinette (1947)
- Rendez-vous in July (1949)
- Édouard et Caroline (1951)
- Casque d'Or (1952)
- Rue de l'Estrapade (1953)
- Touchez pas au Grisbi (1954)
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1954)
- The Adventures of Arsène Lupin (1957)
- The Lovers of Montparnasse (1958)
- Le Trou (1960)
Assistant director
- Y'en a pas deux comme Angélique (1931)
- Allô... Allô... (1931 short)
- Night at the Crossroads (1932)
- Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
- Madame Bovary (1933) (uncredited)
- Partie de campagne (1936 short)
- La vie est à nous (1936)
- Les bas-fonds (1936)
- La Grande illusion (1937)
- La Marseillaise (1938)
- The Mondesir Heir (1940)
References
- ↑ "Jacques Becker's Acclaimed Films". They Shoot Pictures, Don't They. February 7, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- ↑ Vignaux, Valérie (2000). Editions du CÉFAL, ed. Jacques Becker, ou l'exercice de la liberté. p. 11. ISBN 2-87130-088-7.