Rue de l'Estrapade

"Estrapade" (Estrapado) was a horrible torture which I'm not going to depict here.The word sounds like "escapade" which means " gentle runaway".And "Rue De L'Escapade " was tailor made for such a movie,for the wife (A beaming Anne Vernon) ,tired of her husband's (handsome Louis Jourdan) infidelities ,runs away from marital home and rents a seedy tiny apartment in the working-class area of the city.

After a masterpiece such as "Casque D'Or" ,one of the peaks of the French cinema,anything would be a let down.Becker did not even try.His "Rue DE L'Estrapade" ,with the exception of his debut ("Dernier Atout" ) was his weakest film then.He was to sink lower with "Arsene Lupin" and his dismal "Ali Baba" -Fernandel in the title role!- before coming up with aces for his final -and perhaps most ambitious- chef d'oeuvre "Le Trou" ,maybe the best prison movie ever done.

"Rue De L'Estrapade" is a curious patchwork:it includes snatches of previous works :the chic world of fashion ("Falbalas" ) ,a little walk in the popular town ("Antoine Et Antoinette" ) Amorous Quarrel ("Edouard Et Caroline" ).If only he had borrowed from his three early major works ("Casque D'Or" ,"Rendez-Vous De Juillet" "Goupi Mains Rouges" ).It's pleasant enough with a nice appearance -at the 46th minute- by Daniel Gelin as a singer short of the readies performing Georges Brassens' lovely "Le Parapluie" .

Fans of Jacques Becker will like it;but a young person who wants to discover this great French director should pick up one of his four towering achievements:"Casque D'or" "Goupi Mains ROuges" "rendezvous De Juillet" and "Le Trou".

NB: a bisexual character (Jean Servais),which was risqué for the time.