Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker (1906–1960) was a French director and one of the most distinctive figures of postwar French cinema before the rise of the New Wave. A longtime assistant to Jean Renoir, he carried Renoir's humanist sensibility into a body of work built around close attention to the textures of professional and criminal milieus — workers, gangsters, salesmen, jewel thieves. His acclaimed films include Goupi Mains Rouges, Antoine and Antoinette, Rendezvous in July, Edward and Caroline, Casque d'Or, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Le Trou.