Louis Malle

Known for DirectingBorn 1932-10-30Died 1995-11-23Thumeries, Nord, France

Louis Marie Malle (30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. His film "The Silent World" won the Palme d'Or in 1956 and the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1957, although he was not credited at the ceremony with the award instead being presented to the film's co-director Jacques Cousteau. Later in his career he was nominated multiple times for Academy Awards. Malle is also one of the few directors to have won the Golden Lion multiple times. Malle worked in both French cinema and Hollywood, and he produced both French and English language films. His most famous films include the crime film "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), the World War II drama "Lacombe, Lucien" (1974), the romantic crime film "Atlantic City" (1980), the comedy-drama "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), and the autobiographical film "Au Revoir les Enfants" (1987). Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries, Nord, France. He initially studied political science at Sciences Po before turning to film studies at IDHEC instead. He assisted Robert Bresson on "A Man Escaped" (1956) before making his first feature, "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), a taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, which made an international film star of Jeanne Moreau, at the time a leading stage actress of the Comédie-Française. Malle was 24 years old. Malle's "The Lovers" (1958), which also starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal definition of obscenity. Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague movement, and while Malle's work does not directly fit in with or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the Cahiers du cinéma, his films do exemplify many of the characteristics of the movement, such as using natural light and shooting on location, and his film "Zazie dans le Métro" (1960), an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel, inspired Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle. In 1968 Malle visited India and made a seven-part documentary series "Phantom India" (1969), which was released in cinemas. Concentrating on real India, its rituals and festivities, Malle fell afoul of the Indian government, which disliked his portrayal of the country, in its fascination with the pre-modern, and consequently banned the BBC from filming in India for several years. Malle later claimed his documentary on India was his favorite film. Malle later moved to the United States and continued to direct there. Just as his earlier films such as "The Lovers" helped popularize French films in the United States, "My Dinner with Andre" was at the forefront of the rise of American independent cinema in the 1980s.Read more

Movies & web series

The Bardot mystery

365 Day Project

The Passions of Louis Malle

Station 307

Spécial cinéma

Français, si vous saviez

Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years

Hollywood’s Children

Close up: Dominique Sanda ou le rêve éveillé

The Thief of Tibadabo

Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II

Louis Malle, le révolté

Cinépanorama

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

Discorama

La Vie de Bohème

Au Revoir les Enfants

My Dinner with Andre

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

God's Country

The Fire Within

Elevator to the Gallows

Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit

Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown

Becoming Cousteau

Louis Malle, le rebelle

… And the Pursuit of Happiness

Who Is Henry Jaglom?

The Road to Bresson

Pretty Baby

Lacombe, Lucien

May Fools

Murmur of the Heart

Ekeb of Dekye

Place de la République

Best Regards from Bangkok

Atlantic City

Vanya on 42nd Street

Damage

Vive Le Tour

Calcutta

The Thief of Paris

The Ogre

Young Törless

The Lion Roars Again

The Lovers

Zazie dans le Métro

The Silent World