Biography
Cécile Decugis (1930–2017) was a French film editor and director. She began her career in the 1950s as an assistant editor on François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) and went on to edit several key films of the French New Wave, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) and Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player (1960).
From the late 1960s she became the principal editor for Éric Rohmer, working on nine of his feature films over fifteen years, among them My Night at Maud’s (1969), Claire’s Knee (1970), The Aviator’s Wife (1981), Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Full Moon in Paris (1984). She also directed a number of short films, including the 1957 documentary Les Réfugiés.
In 1960 Decugis was arrested for renting an apartment to Algerian National Liberation Front militants and spent two years in prison; Truffaut provided financial support during her imprisonment. She later worked as an editor and teacher in France.
