Richebé, Roger

(1897-1989)

   Director, producer, and screen-writer. Born in Marseille, Roger Richebé was lured into the cinema by a commercial venture of his father's to finance cinema houses. Not content to simply screen films, Richebé began directing and producing. As a director Richebé made nearly twenty films during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He made his first film, L'Agonie des aigles, in 1933, and went on to direct Minuit place Pigalle (1934), L 'Habit vert (1937), Prisons de femmes (1938), La Tradition de minuit (1939), Madame Sans-Gêne (1941), Les J3 (1946), Monseigneur (1949), Les Amants de minuit (1953), Élisa (1957), and Que les hommes sont bêtes (1957), among other films. In addition to directing, he wrote the screenplays for a number of his own films and worked on the screenplay for Abel Gance's Austerlitz (1960).

   In 1930, Richebé created a joint production company with Pierre Braunberger, Les Établissements Braunberger-Richebé. The venture lasted a few years before Richebé formed his own production company, Les Films Roger Richebé. He also coproduced with Marcel Pagnol. Among the films Richebé produced either independently or in collaboration were Marc Allegret's Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931), Le Blanc et le noir (1931), Fanny (1932), codirected with Pagnol, and La Petite chocolatière (1932), Jean Renoir's La Chienne (1931), Maurice Tourneur's Konigsmark (1935), Marcel L'Herbier's Forfaiture (1937), his own Madame Sans-Gêne (1941), Monseigneur (1949), and Les Amants de minuit (1953), Georges Lacombe's Monsieur La Souris (1942), Robert Bresson's Les Anges du péché (1943), Christian-Jacque's Voyage sans espoir (1943), and Henri Decoin's Clara de Montargis (1951). He retired from the cinema in 1960.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins