Monnet changes everything? Capitalism, currency and crisis in Jacques Becker’s Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) and Jacques Audiard’s Un prophète (2009)

Abstract

Both Jacques Becker’s 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi and Jacques Audiard’s 2009 film Un prophète are explorations of France’s place in a changing global economic and political landscape. Becker’s film, with its emphasis on imported gold, currency exchange, and the illusory promise of wealth and security, functions as a commentary on France’s entry into the neo-liberal economy via its participation in the American-backed European Recovery Program or Marshall Plan. Audiard’s film, released more than 50 years later, explores the consequences of globalization through France’s transition to the European Union. This film, released one year after the European Economic Recovery Plan designed to counteract the failures of the eurozone, also explores the nation at a moment of economic crisis and change.