GENE SISKEL CENTER
Jacques Becker Film Series
Becker’s relatively small body of work constitutes some of the most engaging cinema of postwar Europe. With compassion, wit, and a gift for working with actors and actresses, he became a perceptive chronicler of life in Paris during the 1940s and 1950s. He distinguished himself in the French film industry with a series of box office successes that saw him oscillating between period melodramas, working-class romances, nail-biting studies in suspense, and even an absorbing biopic of a great artist. Becker, in a career that was cut short by his untimely death at age 53, counted Francois Truffaut, Jean Renoir and Jean-Pierre Melville among his admirers.
Falbalas (1945)
“[Becker’s] first masterwork…In FALBALAS, for the first time, he proved himself– while Ingmar Bergman was still serving his apprenticeship–to be a master of the closeup, the burning stare into the camera.”–Richard Brody, The New Yorker
· Wed, Jan 30th 7:45pm
Casque d’Or (1952)
“This elegant masterwork is a glowingly nostalgic evocation of the Paris of the Impressionists…one of the great movie romances.”–Tom Milne, Time Out London
· Thu, Jan 31st 6:00pm
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