Louis Malle

Louis Malle

Born: October 30, 1932
Died: November 23, 1995
in Thumeries, 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.

Movies for Louis Malle...

Title: Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 3, 2023
Type: TV
Actor, model, and global superstar Brooke Shields’ journey from a sexualized young girl to a woman who embraces her identity and voice.
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Becoming Cousteau
Title: Becoming Cousteau
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 22, 2021
Type: Movie
Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.
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L'affaire Matzneff
Title: L'affaire Matzneff
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 5, 2020
Type: Movie
About the Gabriel Matzneff affair and pedophilia in French culture and society from the 1950s to the present day. "It was not very difficult to know who Matzneff was at the time." Vanessa Springora denounces thus, in an interview with the Parisian , the support which benefited the writer Gabriel Matzneff , in the years 1970 and 1980. The author fifties then maintains an affair with the young girl, aged 14 years. A relationship under control that the editor tells in Le Consentement (éd. Grasset), published Thursday. "After having analyzed the work " , the Paris public prosecutor's office announced Friday January 3 the opening of an investigation for "rapes committed on the person of a minor of 15 years".
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Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Title: Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: August 23, 2019
Type: Movie
An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).
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Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit
Title: Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: April 2, 2018
Type: Movie
An account of the life of actress Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017), a true icon of the New Wave and one of the most idolized French movie stars.
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Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown
Title: Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 2, 2016
Type: Movie
Since the early days, Jerry Lewis—in the line of Chaplin, Keaton and Laurel—had the masses laughing with his visual gags, pantomime sketches and signature slapstick humor. Yet Lewis was far more than just a clown. He was also a groundbreaking filmmaker whose unquenchable curiosity led him to write, produce, stage and direct many of the films he appeared in, resulting in such adored classics as The Bellboy, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor.
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Louis Malle, le rebelle
Title: Louis Malle, le rebelle
Character: Self (archiveFootage)
Released: March 30, 2015
Type: Movie
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On the Trail of the New Wave
Title: On the Trail of the New Wave
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 14, 2009
Type: Movie
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Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Title: Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Character: Self
Released: July 8, 1997
Type: Movie
Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as a voyeuristic fraud and the "world's worst director," Henry Jaglom obsessively confuses and abuses the line between life and art. Featuring scores of interviews (including Orson Welles, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman and Peter Bogdanovich) and rare behind-the-scenes footage, this hilarious documentary explores the fascinating question of Who Is Henry Jaglom?
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Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II
Title: Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II
Character: Self
Released: November 17, 1993
Type: Movie
Part one of a BBC documentary about Jean Renoir.
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La Vie de Bohème
Title: La Vie de Bohème
Character: Gentleman
Released: February 27, 1992
Type: Movie
Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.
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And the Pursuit of Happiness
Title: And the Pursuit of Happiness
Character: Narrator
Released: June 27, 1986
Type: Movie
In 1986, Louis Malle (himself a transplant to the United States) set out to investigate the ever-widening range of immigrant experience in America. Interviewing a variety of newcomers — from teachers to astronauts to doctors — in communities from coast to coast, Malle paints a humane portrait of their individual struggles in an increasingly polyglot nation.
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God's Country
Title: God's Country
Character: Narrator (voice)
Released: November 27, 1985
Type: Movie
In 1979, Louis Malle traveled into the heart of Minnesota to capture the everyday lives of the men and women in a prosperous farming community. Six years later, during Ronald Reagan's second term, he returned to find drastic economic decline. Free of stereotypes about America's "heartland," GOD'S COUNTRY, commissioned for American public television, is a stunning work of emotional and political clarity.
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Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years
Title: Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years
Character: Self
Released: June 23, 1985
Type: Movie
Documentary about the life of explorer Jacques Cousteau.
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The Road to Bresson
Title: The Road to Bresson
Character: Self
Released: May 13, 1984
Type: Movie
A Dutch documentary about legendary French filmmaker Robert Bresson.
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My Dinner with Louis
Title: My Dinner with Louis
Character: Interviewee
Released: May 6, 1984
Type: Movie
Interview with director Louis Malle conducted by Wallace Shawn, produced for the BBC-TV programme "Arena".
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Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Title: Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Character: Reader - Melies Catalogue (voice)
Released: October 9, 1982
Type: Movie
A documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.
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Hollywood’s Children
Title: Hollywood’s Children
Character: Self
Released: February 24, 1982
Type: Movie
A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
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Title: Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1975
Type: TV
A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
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The Lion Roars Again
Title: The Lion Roars Again
Character: Self (uncredited)
Released: January 1, 1975
Type: Movie
A chronicle of the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in May 1975.
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Title: Spécial cinéma
Character: Self
Released: September 25, 1974
Type: TV
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Place de la République
Title: Place de la République
Character: Self
Released: April 30, 1974
Type: Movie
Louis Malle presents his entertaining snapshot of the comings and goings on one street corner in Paris.
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Title: Samedi soir
Character: Self
Released: January 9, 1971
Type: TV
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A Very Curious Girl
Title: A Very Curious Girl
Character: Jésus
Released: December 3, 1969
Type: Movie
Treated as an outcast and exploited by the villagers of a small town, a young woman liberates herself through sex, which she uses as a tool of economic gain and an instrument of revenge against those who have wronged her.
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Title: Phantom India
Character: Self - Narrator
Released: July 25, 1969
Type: TV
Louis Malle called his gorgeous and groundbreaking Phantom India the most personal film of his career. And this extraordinary journey to India, originally shown as a miniseries on European television, is infused with his sense of discovery, as well as occasional outrage, intrigue, and joy.
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Calcutta
Title: Calcutta
Character: Narrator (voice)
Released: April 16, 1969
Type: Movie
When he was cutting "Phantom India," Louis Malle found that the footage shot in Calcutta was so diverse, intense, and unforgettable that it deserved its own film. The result, released theatrically, is at times shocking—a chaotic portrait of a city engulfed in social and political turmoil.
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The Thief of Paris
Title: The Thief of Paris
Character: Un figurant (uncredited)
Released: February 22, 1967
Type: Movie
In Paris around 1900, Georges Randal is brought up by his wealthy uncle, who steals his inheritance. Georges hopes to marry his cousin Charlotte, but his uncle arranges for her to marry a rich neighbour. As an act of revenge, Georges steals the fiance's family jewels, and enjoys the experience so much that he embarks upon a life-time of burglary.
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The Birth of Children of Paradise
Title: The Birth of Children of Paradise
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Documentary about the making of Marcel Carne's 1945 film Children of Paradise (France), interviewing the director, the actors and production designer, as well as other French directors.
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Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson
Title: Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson
Character: Self
Released: May 11, 1966
Type: Movie
A documentary, originally produced in 1966 for the French TV series "Pour le plaisir," about Robert Bresson's film "Au Hasard Balthazar," featuring interviews and discussions with Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Marguerite Duras and others.
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A Very Private Affair
Title: A Very Private Affair
Character: Le journaliste (uncredited)
Released: January 31, 1962
Type: Movie
When Jill becomes a movie star, she soon discovers that her private life is destroyed by persistent fans that won't leave her alone. Her mother's ex-lover, Fabio, tries to protect her.
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Title: Discorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1959
Type: TV
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Title: Cinépanorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1956
Type: TV
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Crazeologie
Title: Crazeologie
Released: April 18, 1954
Type: Movie
Louis Malle's student film, featuring the title song by Charlie Parker.