Jacques Becker

Jacques Becker’s (Le Trou) Touchez Pas Au Grisbi occupies a significant part in French cinema history; it exerted a huge influence on subsequent directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Doulos), Henri Verneuil (The Sicilian Clan) and Claude Sautet (Classe Tous Risques). Max (Jean Gabin, Port of Shadows) is an aging gangster who manages to pull off his final heist, a spectacular gold bullion robbery at Orly airport. All is well until Max’s former girlfriend Josy (Jeanne Moreau, Viva Maria!) tips off a rival gangster, Angelo (Lino Ventura, Razzia Sur La Chnouf). Angelo kidnaps Max’s partner and best friend and threatens to kill him unless Max hands over the loot from his robbery. Touchez Pas Au Grisbi was the birth the French policier, a European transposition of the fantastic American gangster films and film noirs of the 1940s. Based on a book by Albert Simonin (Cold Sweat) and beautifully shot in striking black-and-white by Pierre Montazel (Hi-Jack Highway).Read More »

Quote:
A propaganda film produced by the French Communist Party (PCF) for the campaign for the May 1936 elections – which brought the Popular Front to power – “La vie est à nous”, by Jean Renoir, was shot by a team of militant filmmakers and technicians.Read More »

Synopsis:
In a remote village, a family of hard-working country folk known as the ’Goupis’ live at an inn, proud of their history and distrusting of all outsiders. The youngest member of the Goupi clan, Goupi-Monsieur, now lives in Paris, but he is summoned to the Goupi’s home by his father, who is planning to marry him to the young Goupi-Mugeut. Soon after Goupi-Monsieur arrives in the village, the elderly Goupi-L’Empereur is found unconscious and the imperious housekeeper Goupi-Tisane is discovered dead in the forest. When a wad of money goes missing, the Goupis fear that their ancestral treasure has also been stolen. Only Goupi-L’Empereur knows the whereabouts of the teasure but he is unable to speak. The finger of suspicion points squarely at the new arrival, Goupi-Monsieur. However, the wisest of the Goupis, Goupi mains rouges, has another theoryRead More »

Synopsis:
Lucien is a young man whose ambition is to become a famous explorer, against the wishes of his middle-class parents who hope he might settle for a more conventional career. After a row with his father, he leaves home and meets up with his friends, a wild bunch of aspiring young actors, writers and film directors. The latter have offered to join Lucien on his expedition – if he can get the transportation. Lucien is so preoccupied with planning his expedition that he does not notice when his girlfriend Christine is taken from him by the theatre director she is working for.Read More »

Synopsis
The great gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin, engages in a series of daring schemes to deprive his wealthy countrymen of rare jewels and priceless paintings. His activities arouse the interest of Kaiser William II of Germany who arranges for Lupin to be kidnapped and brought to his castle. The Kaiser offers Lupin a challenge: to steal a jewel of great value from a secret hiding place. Should Lupin accept the wager? Read More »

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Le Trou (literally, The Hole) is a harrowing experience in claustrophobia, pressure and hope among inmates in a French prison. The hopes and aspirations of the overcrowded members of one prison cell are put to the test as they commit their trust to luck and each other, to effect a difficult escape. Jacques Becker’s final film is the most realistic prison break movie Savant’s seen – as we all know how these stories usually turn out, the tension and suspense grow, every desperate step of the way.

Synopsis:
The La Santé is overcrowded because of construction, and five men are put into each cell instead of four. But in one cell, the inmates are secretly delighted. Claude Gaspard (Marc Michel), faces a long sentence and therefore can be trusted. He’ll be the extra man needed for a daring, complicated escape the men have planned, that requires nerve, deception, and a lot of digging. The scheme is such a beautifully executed communal effort, that when the first diggers break through to the outside world, they dutifully go back so that their comrades can escape too.Read More »