Robert Hakim (19 December 1907 – 9 February 1992) and Raymond Hakim (23 August 1909 – 14 August 1980) were Egyptian-born brothers who usually worked in collaboration as film producers in France and other European countries. Their brother
André Hakim
André Nessim Hakim (December 5, 1915 in Alexandria, Egypt – October 19, 1980 in Los Angeles) was a film producer.
André and his brothers were in the film industry from the time they were teenagers. His brothers Robert and Raymond Hakim ...
was also a film producer.
Film production
Initially working for the American company
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS.
**Paramount Picture ...
, they formed the company Paris-Film Production in 1934. They financed
Julien Duvivier
Julien Duvivier (; 8 October 1896 – 29 October 1967) was a French film director and screenwriter. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930–1960. Amongst his most original films, chiefly notable are ''La Bandera (film), La Bandera'', ...
's ''
Pépé le Moko
''Pépé le Moko'' () is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring Jean Gabin, based on a novel of the same name by Henri La Barthe and with sets by Jacques Krauss. An example of the 1930s French movement known as poetic realism ...
'' (1937),
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...
's ''
La Bête Humaine
(English: ''The Beast Within'' or ''The Beast in Man'' or ''The Monomaniac'') is an 1890 novel by Émile Zola. It is the seventeenth book in Zola's '' Les Rougon-Macquart'' series. The story focuses on the lives and violent passions of railway w ...
'' (1938) and
Marcel Carné
Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include ''Port of Shadows'' (1938), ''Le Jour Se Lève'' (1939), ''Les Visiteurs du Soi ...
's ''
Le Jour se lève
''Le jour se lève'' (, "The day rises"; also known as ''Daybreak'') is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French ...
'' (''Daybreak'' 1939), all starring
Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin Alexis Moncorgé (born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé), known as Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976), was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films, including '' Pépé le ...
. The brothers lived to the United States during World War II.
After the war they worked on several American films, including Renoir's ''
The Southerner'' (1945) and ''
The Long Night'' (1947), a remake of ''Le Jour se lève'' with
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway theatre, Broadway and in Hollywood. On screen and stage, he often portrayed characters who embodied an everyman image.
Bo ...
.
In 1950, they returned to France and embarked on producing films aimed at an international audience. ''
Casque d'or'' (1953) effectively launched the career of
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret (; born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French actress. She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and ...
and ''
Plein Soleil
''Purple Noon'' (; ; also known as ''Full Sun'', ''Blazing Sun'', ''Lust for Evil'', and ''Talented Mr. Ripley'') is a 1960 crime thriller film starring Alain Delon (in his first major role), alongside Marie Laforêt and Maurice Ronet; Romy Sch ...
'' (1960) did the same for
Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; 8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024) was a French actor, film producer, screenwriter, singer, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of ...
. ''
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...
'' (1956) with
Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known as Anthony Quinn, was an American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in over 100 ...
as Quasimodo and
Gina Lollobrigida
Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (4 July 1927 – 16 January 2023) was an Italian actress, model, photojournalist, and sculptor. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, a period in which she was an international ...
as Esmeralda was internationally successful, but not critically well received.
In the 1960s, they made two films with a ''
nouvelle vague
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of i ...
'' director,
Claude Chabrol
Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
with ''À double tour'' (''
Web of Passion
''Web of Passion'' (also released as ''Leda'', original French title: ''À double tour'') is a 1959 French/Italian psychological thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol and based on the novel ''The Key to Nicholas Street'' by American writer St ...
'', 1959) and ''
Les Bonnes Femmes
''Les Bonnes Femmes'' is a 1960 French nouvelle vague comedy drama film directed by Claude Chabrol. It follows four young Parisian women and their very different encounters with men. Though unsuccessful upon its initial release in France, it was ...
'' (1960), but worked with older directors, like
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
on ''
Belle de jour'' (1967). On other occasions, they worked with someone relatively new to international audiences, such as
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
on ''
L'Eclisse
''L'Eclisse'' () is a 1962 romantic drama film co-written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Alain Delon and Monica Vitti, with Francisco Rabal, Lilla Brignone, and Louis Seigner. Filmed on location in Rome and Verona, the story ...
'' (1962). They also worked with
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director, and producer, as well as an author, artist, and occasional actor. His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, s ...
on a remake of ''
La Ronde'' (1964), which starred Vadim's then wife,
Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...
.
The Hakims have a mixed reputation; American director
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
had an especially fraught relationship with them while making ''
Eva'' (1962). In post-production, Losey and his team found the film had been recut during the weekend without their consultation; Losey and Robert Hakim almost came to blows.
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...
was commissioned for the score without consultation too, but like actor
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...
, was not paid a fee.
Selected filmography
* ''
The Kiss of Fire
''The Kiss of Fire'' (French: ''Naples au baiser de feu'') is a 1937 French romantic comedy film directed by Augusto Genina and starring Tino Rossi, Michel Simon, Mireille Balin and Viviane Romance.Plastino & Sciorra p.128 The film is based on the ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Marthe Richard
Marthe Richard ( Betenfeld; 15 August 1889 in Blâmont – 9 February 1982) was a French prostitute and spy. She later became a politician, and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.
Early life
In Nancy, she became an a ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Lights of Paris
''Lights of Paris'' (French: ''Lumières de Paris'') is a 1938 French musical comedy film directed by Richard Pottier and starring Tino Rossi, Michèle Alfa and Raymond Cordy.Rège p.836 It was shot at Pathé's Joinville Studios in Paris. The fi ...
'' (1938)
See also
Academy 1-2-3, 165 Oxford Street, London, managed by Eric Hakim
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakim, Robert and Raymond
Egyptian film producers
French film producers
Egyptian emigrants to France
People from Alexandria
Brother duos