Robert and Raymond Hakim


Robert Hakim and Raymond Hakim were Egyptian-born brothers who usually worked in collaboration as film producers in France and other European countries. Their brother André Hakim was also a film producer.

Film production

Initially working for the American company Paramount, they formed the company Paris-Film Production in 1934, and financed Julien Duvivier's Pépé le Moko, Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine and Marcel Carné's Le Jour se lève, all starring Jean Gabin. The brothers emigrated to the United States.
After the war they worked on several American films, including Renoir's The Southerner and The Long Night, a remake of Le Jour se lève with Henry Fonda.
In 1950, they returned to France and embarked on producing films aimed at an international audience. Casque d'or effectively launched the career of Simone Signoret and Plein Soleil did the same for Alain Delon. Notre Dame de Paris with Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo and Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda was internationally successful, but not critically well received.
In the 1960s, they made two films with a nouvelle vague director, Claude Chabrol with À double tour and Les Bonnes Femmes, but worked with older directors, like Luis Buñuel on Belle de jour in 1967. Other times worked with someone relatively new to international audiences, like Michelangelo Antonioni on L'Eclisse in 1962. They also worked with Roger Vadim on a remake of La Ronde, which starred Vadim's then wife, Jane Fonda.
.
The Hakim's have a mixed reputation; American director Joseph Losey had an especially fraught relationship with them while making Eva. 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 was commissioned for the score without consultation too, but like actor Jeanne Moreau, was not paid a fee.