Montparnasse 19

press release: 

France, Italy | 1958 | DCP | 105 min. | French with English Subtitles

Director: Jacques Becker

Cast: Gérard Philipe, Lino Ventura, Anouk Aimee

Based on the last year (1919-20) in the tragically short life of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani (played by Philipe, soon to die young himself), this biopic charts the artist’s poverty, struggle for authenticity, thwarted love, and eventual downfall. Becker’s personal and moving film stands also as a bittersweet paean to the Left Bank milieu of Paris’ early twentieth-century bohemian quarter. The great international cast also includes Euro-superstars Lila Kedrova, Lilli Palmer, and Lea Padovani. DCP courtesy of the Institut Français, Paris.

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.