Falbalas

press release: France | 1945 | DCP | 111 min. | French with English Subtitles

Director: Jacques Becker; Cast: Raymond Rouleau, Micheline Presle, Jean Chevrier

A womanizing fashion designer (Rouleau) finally finds love, but unfortunately he has fallen for his best friend’s fiancée (Presle). This wonderful cinematic precursor to Phantom Thread counts among its admirers Jean-Paul Gaultier, who said Falbalas “gave me my vocation in life. It directed the way I should make fashion.”

Jacques Becker: A Master Before the Wave

An enormously versatile director, Jacques Becker (1906–1960) 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. This series provides a healthy sampling of Becker’s strong body of work, including all three features (Antoine et Antoinette, Rendezvous in July, Edouard et Caroline) that comprise his “Youth Trilogy.” Special Thanks to Rialto Pictures and Amélie Garin-Davet and Laurence Geannopulos of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.