The Last Tycoons

Dissatisfied in Hollywood, brothers Robert and Raymond Hakim returned to France to re-launch their careers. André Paulvé, a grain broker, talked his way into his first production....

During WWII the Nazis seized the operations of dormant production companies—notably those of Jewish producers who were unable to work. Robert Dorfmann and Pierre Braunberger hid ou...

The New Wave was partly driven by producers who saw hand-held cameras and cheaper lighting as ways to save money. Breathless was a collaboration between a producer and director who...

In American studios, producers weren't constantly hunting for financing, and unlike under French law, directors didn't necessarily get final cut. Jacques-Éric Strauss's introductio...

Producers driven by a true passion for film. Mag Bodard was a woman producing films during an almost completely male-dominated era. Her financing challenges included the stereotype...

Raymond Danon's hard-nosed, no-nonsense persona concealed a deep love for cinema and a flair for the theatrical. Danon fought for the projects he loved, knowing that no one really...

The 1970s expanded the bounds of the permissible in film — anything that could make it past the censors. Emmanuelle was emblematic of this new era. Produced by a former advertising...

Risk-taking producers at the tail end of a wide-open period of French cinema. Jean-Pierre Rassam lavished money on filmmakers he trusted, and didn’t bother reading scripts. Christi...