Don’t Touch the Grisbi: A Great Influence for a Great Martin Scorsese Film

Don’t touch the grisbia great French success

Directed in 1954 by Jacques Becker, Don’t touch the grisbi it is a monument to the history of French cinema. A major success of post-war cinema, the model for the gangster film noir that would mark the pinnacle of French cinema in the following decades, it revived the career of Jean Gabin at the time and launched that of Lino Ventura. Adapted from the novel by Albert Simonin, it is the first adaptation of his trilogy Max the liarof which are the following works The cellar rebels AND The gunslingerspublished in 1961 and 1963 respectively.

Don’t touch the grisbi it is both a critical and commercial success. In total, it collects more than in France 4.7 million entries in cinemas and Jean Gabin is worth it his second Coppa Volpi for male performance at the Venice Film Festival in 1954 – shared with his performance in The air of Paris, published the same year. The influence of the film is notable, abroad as in France, and still remains very palpable, starting with Martin Scorsese himselfAmerican master of gangster cinema, he took inspiration from it for his 2019 fresco The Irish.

Robert De Niro as Jean Gabin

It’s inside a conversation with Spike Leeafter the New York premiere of The Irish at the end of October 2019, Martin Scorsese explained how much Don’t touch the grisbi had played an important role in its design. He stated in particular that he showed his director of photography Rodrigo Prieto several French films, The Doulos AND The second wind by Jean-Pierre Melville, and therefore Don’t touch the grisbi by Jacques Becker, to give him an idea of ​​what he envisioned for The Irish.

I showed him the film “Touchez pas au grisbi”, which means “don’t touch the loot”, and which is a very famous French gangster film, with Jean Gabin, from the early 1950s. When I was filming “Casino” with Robert De Niro , I discovered that he was beginning to have the stature of Jean Gabin in his middle age. He had all this power but also a serenity, something “cool”. I think Bob became like that in “Casino.”

“Touchez au Grisbi” has a similar theme (to “The Irishman”) in that it’s about aging gangsters, in Paris, who get involved in business when they don’t want to. It’s the same tone and I like Gabin’s behavior, his way of presenting himself. We also used some of the harmonica music from “Touchez pas au grisbi” for “The Irishman”, and Robbie Robertson took more inspiration from the music of early 1950s French film noir .

Jean Gabin, who died in 1976, and Lino Ventura, who died in 1987, will therefore never have heard this reference and this homage to one of the greatest films of their respective careers. But this, no doubt, would necessarily have flattered them.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

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