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Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French filmmaker who worked in France and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "difficult to pin down", his works often depict provocative or controversial subject matter.
Malle's most famous works include the crime thriller Elevator to the Gallows (1958), the romantic drama The Lovers (1958), the World War II drama Lacombe, Lucien (1974), the period drama Pretty Baby (1978), the romantic crime film Atlantic City (1980), the dramedy My Dinner with Andre (1981), and the autobiographical Au revoir les enfants (1987). He also co-directed the landmark underwater documentary The Silent World with Jacques Cousteau, which won the 1956 Palme d'Or and the 1957 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Critic Pauline Kael once wrote that the common quality of Malle's films was the "restless intelligence one senses in them".
Malle is one of only four directors to have won the Golden Lion twice. His other accolades include three César Awards, two BAFTAs, and three Academy Awards nominations. He was made a BAFTA Fellowship of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1991.
During World War II, Malle attended a Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. As an 11-year-old he witnessed a Gestapo raid on the school, in which three Jewish students, including his close friend, and a Jewish teacher were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. The school's headmaster, Père Jacques, was arrested for harboring them and sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen. Malle depicted these events in his autobiographical film Au revoir les enfants (1987).
As a young man, Malle studied political science at Sciences Po from 1950 to 1952 (some sources incorrectly state that he studied at the Sorbonne) before turning to film studies at IDHEC.
Malle's The Lovers ( Les Amants, 1958), which also starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case about the legal definition of obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio, a theater owner was fined $2,500 for obscenity. The Supreme Court overturned the decision, finding that the film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected. But the court could not agree on a definition of "obscene", with Justice Potter Stewart famously saying, "I know it when I see it".
Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague, but his work does not directly fit in with or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Éric Rohmer, and others, and he had nothing to do with Cahiers du cinéma. But Malle's work does exemplify some of the movement's characteristics, such as using natural light and shooting on location, and his film Zazie dans le Métro ( Zazie in the Metro, 1960, an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel) inspired Truffaut to write Malle an enthusiastic letter.
Other films also tackled taboo subjects: The Fire Within (also called Le Feu Follet) centers on a man about to commit suicide. Critic Pauline Kael said it should have solidified Malle's reputation in the U.S. as a great film director but suggested that its commercial failure may have been due to distribution issues. Le souffle au cœur (1971) deals with an incestuous relationship between mother and son, and Lacombe, Lucien (1974), co-written with Patrick Modiano, is about collaboration with the in Vichy France during World War II. The latter earned Malle his first Oscar nomination, for "Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced".
Calcutta never opened in New York.
Towards the end of his life, cultural correspondent Melinda Camber Porter interviewed Malle extensively for The Times. In 1993, the interviews were included in her book Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections On Contemporary French Arts And Culture.
Malle married actress Candice Bergen in 1980. They had one child, Chloé Françoise Malle, on 8 November 1985. (2015). 9780684808277, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684808277 Malle died of lymphoma, aged 63, at their home in Beverly Hills, California, on 23 November 1995.
| 1953 ! scope="row" | Crazeologie | |||
| 1954 ! scope="row" | Station 307 | Also cinematographer | ||
| 1968 ! scope="row" | William Wilson | Segment of Spirits of the Dead |
Feature film
| 1958 ! scope="row" | Elevator to the Gallows | |||
| 1960 ! scope="row" | Zazie in the Metro | |||
| 1962 ! scope="row" | A Very Private Affair | |||
| 1963 ! scope="row" | The Fire Within | |||
| 1965 ! scope="row" | Viva Maria! | |||
| 1967 ! scope="row" | The Thief of Paris | |||
| 1971 ! scope="row" | Murmur of the Heart | |||
| 1974 ! scope="row" | Lacombe, Lucien | |||
| 1975 ! scope="row" | Black Moon | |||
| 1978 ! scope="row" | Pretty Baby | |||
| 1980 ! scope="row" | Atlantic City | |||
| 1981 ! scope="row" | My Dinner with Andre | |||
| 1984 ! scope="row" | Crackers | |||
| 1985 ! scope="row" | Alamo Bay | |||
| 1987 ! scope="row" | Au revoir les enfants | |||
| 1990 ! scope="row" | May Fools | |||
| 1992 ! scope="row" | Damage | |||
| 1994 ! scope="row" | Vanya on 42nd Street | |||
Acting credits
| 1962 ! scope="row" | A Very Private Affair | A journalist |
| 1969 ! scope="row" | A Very Curious Girl | Jésus |
| 1992 ! scope="row" | La Vie de Bohème |
| 1956 ! scope="row" | The Silent World | Co-directed with Jacques Cousteau | ||
| 1962 ! scope="row" | Vive le Tour | Also cinematographer | ||
| 1969 ! scope="row" | Calcutta | Also narrator | ||
| 1973 ! scope="row" | Human, Too Human | |||
| 1974 ! scope="row" | Place de la République | Appeared as himself | ||
| 1976 ! scope="row" | Close Up | Short film | ||
| 1986 ! scope="row" | And the Pursuit of Happiness | Also cinematographer and narrator |
| 1964 ! scope="row" | Bons baisers de Bangkok | Short film |
| 1969 ! scope="row" | Phantom India | Miniseries; Also narrator |
| 1985 ! scope="row" | God's Country | Also cinematographer and narrator |
As himself
| 1994 ! scope="row" | Murphy Brown | Episode "My Movie with Louis" |
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