Forty years after Gabin’s death, his tale continues to unfold and French audiences still feel a strong connection with him. His filmography grows from the history of his country. His journey as a man and as an actor followed with the geography of his land. His films belong to the national story and they may yet find their way into our textbooks. So this dive into Gabin’s life is also intended as a history of ordinary French people. Our Gabin is an emblematic, historic and allegorical 20th century figure: an actor who embodied the spirit of his era, a normal yet extraordinary hero who became a legend of French cinema. His commanding presence, his sense of repartee, his natural and fresh acting style and the way in which he was able to embody values of friendship, faithfulness and courage made audiences warm to him.
Un Français nommé Gabin is the first entirely archival audiovisual portrait of Jean Gabin. It uses historical, family and film archive material, as well as photographs, magazines, posters, songs and newsreel footage, and nearly 200 extracts drawn from almost half of the films Gabin made. The archive footage depicts his own lively speech patterns, his voice, his choice of words, his favourite phrases, his smile, his eruptions. Many of the sequences were fun to choose: Gabin singing, Gabin dancing, Gabin flirting, Gabin fighting; the famous kisses, the many slaps his partners received; a Gabin of many colours, seen often in finest black and white.
We have used all this material to fuel our story, make it come to life and help plunge audiences into the ambience of each successive era. We wanted people to see Jean Gabin’s most famous scenes – for the first time or not – with pleasure and with emotion, and also to be able to discover rarer films that remain an utter delight. We wanted people to relive Gabin’s story. By following his career and his private life we go through the history of both cinema and France itself; the political, social and urban history of course, but also his exceptionally intimate story too.

François Aymé and Yves Jeuland