Jean-Pierre Melville
Directing
- Born
- October 20, 1917 · Paris, France
- Died
- August 2, 1973 (age 55)
Jean-Pierre Grumbach (20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973), known professionally as Jean-Pierre Melville (French: [mɛlvil]), was a French filmmaker. Considered a spiritual father of the French New Wave, he was one of the first fully-independent French filmmakers to achieve commercial and critical success. His works include the crime dramas Bob le flambeur (1956), Le Doulos (1962), Le Samouraï (1967), and Le Cercle Rouge (1970), and the war films Le Silence de la mer (1949) and Army of Shadows (1969).
Melville's subject matter and approach to filmmaking was heavily influenced by his service in the French Resistance during World War II, during which he adopted the pseudonym 'Melville' as a tribute to his favorite American author Herman Melville. He kept it as his stage name once the war was over.
Read moreShow less
His sparse, existentialist but stylish approach to film noir and later neo-noir films, many of them in the crime dramas, have been highly influential to future generations of filmmakers. Roger Ebert appraised him as "one of the greatest directors."
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean-Pierre Melville, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Le Samouraï
October 25, 1967
Army of Shadows
September 10, 1969
Le Cercle Rouge
October 19, 1970
Le Doulos
December 13, 1962
Bob le Flambeur
August 24, 1956
Un Flic
October 1, 1972
Le Deuxième Souffle
November 1, 1966
Léon Morin, Priest
September 22, 1961
The Good Thief
February 28, 2003
The Silence of the Sea
April 22, 1949
The Strange Ones
March 29, 1950
Two Men in Manhattan
October 16, 1959
Behind the camera17
- 2021Short Cuts : Le Cercle rouge de Jean-Pierre Melville Original Film Writer
- 2004Their First Films Director
- 2003The Good Thief Original Film Writer
- 1972Un Flic Director, Writer
- 1970Le Cercle Rouge Editor, Director, Writer
- 1969Army of Shadows Director, Screenplay
- 1967Le Samouraï Screenplay, Director
- 1966Le Deuxième Souffle Writer, Director
- 1963Magnet of Doom Director, Screenplay, Dialogue
- 1962Le Doulos