TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI

Tuesday September 24 – 1:00 pm – Renoir Theater
(Screening ends at 2:45 pm)

Directed by: Jacques Becker
Written by: Jacques Becker, Maurice Griffe
Based on the Novel by: Albert Simonin
Cinematography: Pierre Montazel
Film Editing: Marguerite Houllé-Renoir
Original Score: Jean Wiener
Produced by: Robert Dorfmann
Cast: Jean Gabin (Max), René Dary (Riton), Lino Ventura (Angelo), Jeanne Moreau (Josy) Dora Doll (Lola)
International Sales: Les Acacias
U.S. Distributor: Rialto Pictures

Consummate actor Jean Gabin plays Max, an elegant aging gangster who’s well aware of the wrinkles on his brow and his double-chin, in Jacques Becker’s Touchez Pas Au Grisbi. The “grisbi” in question refers to a stash of gold ingots Max has tucked away for his retirement. A principled man of few words, Max is both a realist and a pro, fed up with heists and eager for a more comfortable life, in this understated black and white crime drama about loyalty, growing old, and honor among thieves. Adapted from a novel by Albert Simonin and co-starring Lino Ventura and 25-year-old beauty Jeanne Moreau, this flawless 1954 mobster movie — the granddaddy of them all — relaunched Jean Gabin’s post-war career, established the rules of the genre, and paved the way for Jules Dassin’s Rififi and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le flambeur.

Writer-director Jacques Becker began his career as assistant to director Jean Renoir in the 1930s, on such films as Boudu Saved from Drowning, A Day in the Country and The Grand Illusion. He was held in a German prisoner-of-war camp for a year at the beginning of WWII, and became a film director during the Nazi occupation of France. He was a prominent member of the Comité de liberation du cinéma français, a filmmakers’ organization created in 1943, which produced films touting the French Resistance and published an underground film journal. He went on to become a major French filmmaker, writing and directing 15 feature films, most notably the ill-fated loved story Casque d’or (1952), and taut prison-break drama The Hole (1959). Becker died in 1960, at the age of 53.

Presented in Association with:

Rialto Pictures