Research in Progress, Sep 19, 2021
Louis Malle Career Summation
Occupational Inheritance: No
Social Class: upper; wealthy
Race/Ethnicity: Catholic; guilt
Family:
Nationality: French
Formal Education:
Training:
First Film: docu 1956; age 24; Elevator to Gallows, 1958; age 26
First Oscar Nomination: Murmur of Heart, 1971, screenplay; age 39; Atlantic City, 1981; age 49
Other Nominations: 3 (2 for writing; 1 for directing)
Oscar Awards: Venice Fest; Cesar
Nominations Span: 1956-1981; 25 years
Genre (specialties): docus and features
Collaborators: Susan Sarandon (2 films)
Last Film: Vanya on 42nd Street, 1994; aged 62
Contract:
Career Output: about 20
Career Span: 1956-1995; 39 years
Marriage: actresses
Politics:
Death: 1995, lymphoma; age 63
Louis Marie Malle (October 30, 1932 – November 23, 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer.
His film Le Monde du silence won the Palme d’Or in 1956 and the Best Documentary Oscar in 1957, although he was not credited at the ceremony; the award was instead 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 only four directors to have won twice the Golden Lion, the top award at the Venice Film Fest.
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 Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (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, the son of Francoise (Béghin) and Pierre Malle.
During World War II, Malle attended a Roman Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. At age 11, he witnessed 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 would later address these events in his autobiographical film, Au revoir les enfants (1987).
As a young man, Malle initially studied political science at Sciences Po before turning to film studies at IDHEC.
He worked as the co-director and cameraman to Jacques Cousteau on the documentary The Silent World (1956), which won an Oscar and the Palme d’Or at the 1956 Oscar Awards and Cannes Film Fest respectively.
He assisted Robert Bresson on A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956).
Elevator to the Gallows
He made his first feature, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud in 1957 (released in the U.K. as Lift to the Scaffold and in the U.S. originally as Frantic, later as Elevator to the Gallows). A taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud made an international film star of Jeanne Moreau, at the time a leading stage actress of the Comédie-Française. Malle was 24 years old.
The Lovers: Controversial (Supreme Court)
Malle’s The Lovers (Les Amants, 1958), which also starred Moreau, caused controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal definition of obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio, a theater owner was fined $2,500 for obscenity. The decision was eventually reversed by the higher court, which found that the film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected. However, the court could not agree on the definition of “obscene,” which caused Justice Potter Stewart to utter his “I know it when I see it” opinion, the most famous single line associated with the court.
Malle and New Wave
Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague movement. 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 whatsoever to do with the Cahiers du cinéma. However, Malle’s work does exemplify some of the characteristics of the movement, 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 an enthusiastic letter to Malle.
Taboo Subjects
Other films also tackled taboo subjects: The Fire Within centres on a man about to commit suicide, Le souffle au cœur (1971) deals with an incestuous relationship between mother and son.
Lacombe Lucien (1974), co-written with Patrick Modiano, is about collaboration with the Nazis in Vichy France during WWII.
The second of these earned Malle his first (of three) Oscar nominations for “Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced”.
Malle visited India in 1968, and made a seven-part documentary series, L’Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage, and documentary film, Calcutta, 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 docu on India was his favorite film.
Malle later moved to the U.S. and continued to direct there. His films include Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Crackers (1984), Alamo Bay (1985), Damage (1992) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya) in English; Au revoir les enfants (1987) and Milou en Mai (May Fools in the U.S., 1990) in French.
Just as earlier films such as The Lovers helped popularize French films in the US, My Dinner with Andre was at the forefront of the rise of American independent cinema in the 1980s.
Malle was interviewed extensively for The Times by cultural correspondent Melinda Camber Porter. In 1993, the interviews were included in Camber Porter’s book Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections On Contemporary French Arts And Culture.
Malle was married to actress Anne-Marie Deschodt from 1965 to 1967. He later had a son, Manuel Cuotemoc Malle (born 1971), with German actress Gila von Weitershausen, and a daughter, filmmaker Justine Malle (born 1974), with Canadian actress Alexandra Stewart.
He married actress Candice Bergen in 1980. They had one child, a daughter, Chloé Françoise Malle, November 8, 1985.
He died from lymphoma, aged 63, at their home in Beverly Hills, California, November 23, 1995.
Oscar Awards and Nominations
Le Monde du silence (1956)
Cannes Festival Palme d’Or Winner
The Lovers (1958)
Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner
Le Feu follet (1963)
Venice Festival Special Jury Prize Winner
Venice Festival Italian Film Critics Award Winner
The Thief of Paris (1967)
Moscow International Film Festival official selection[8]
Calcutta (1969)
Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
Melbourne International Film Festival: Grand Prix Winner
Murmur of the Heart (1971); Cannes Fest Official Selection
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nomination
Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nomination
Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
BAFTA Best Foreign Language Film Winner
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director Nomination
Pretty Baby (1978) Cannes Film Fest, Technical Grand Prix Winner
Atlantic City (1981)
Venice Film Fest Golden Lion Winner
Academy Award for Best Director Nomination
Academy Award for Best Picture Nomination
Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
Golden Globes Best Director Nomination
BAFTA Best Director Winner
Crackers (1984) Berlin Film Fest Official Selection
Goodbye, Children (1987); Venice Fest Golden Lion Winner
Venice Film Festival OCIC Award Winner
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nomination
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nomination
Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
BAFTA Best Director Winner
BAFTA Best Film Nomination
BAFTA Best Screenplay Nomination
Cesar Awards Best Film Winner
Cesar Awards Best Director Winner
Cesar Awards Best Screenplay Winner
European Film Awards Best Screenwriter Winner
European Film Awards Best Film Nomination
European Film Awards Best Director Nomination
May Fools (1990)
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Film Nomination
Filmography
Feature Films
Crazeologie 1953 Yes Yes Short film
Station 307 1954 Yes Yes Yes Short film; Also cinematographer
Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’échafaud) 1958
The Lovers (Les amants) 1958
Zazie in the Metro (Zazie dans le Métro) 1960 Yes Yes Yes
A Very Private Affair (Vie privée) 1962, appeared as a journalist
The Fire Within (Le feu follet) 1963 Yes Yes
Viva Maria! 1965 Yes Yes
The Thief of Paris (Le voleur) 1967 Yes Yes
Spirits of the Dead (Histoires extraordinaires) 1968 Yes Yes Segment: “William Wilson”
A Very Curious Girl (La Fiancée du pirate) 1969 Yes Appeared as Jésus
Murmur of the Heart (Le souffle au cœur) 1971 Yes Yes
Lacombe, Lucien 1974 Yes Yes Yes
Black Moon 1975 Yes Yes
Pretty Baby 1978 Yes Yes
Atlantic City 1980 Yes
My Dinner with Andre 1981
Crackers 1984
Alamo Bay 1985
Goodbye, Children (Au revoir les enfants) 1987
May Fools (Milou en Mai) 1990
La Vie de Bohème 1992, Appeared in a cameo
Damage 1992
Vanya on 42nd Street 1994
Documentary films
The Silent World (Le Monde du silence) 1956, Co-directed with Jacques Cousteau
Vive le Tour 1962 Yes Yes Yes Also cinematographer
Calcutta 1969 Yes Yes Yes Also narrator
Human, Too Human (Humain, trop humain) 1973
Place de la République 1974, Appeared as himself
Close Up 1976 Yes Short film
And the Pursuit of Happiness 1986, Also cinematographer and narrator
Television
Bons baisers de Bangkok 1964, Short film
Phantom India (L’Inde Fantôme) 1969, Miniseries; Also narrator
God’s Country 1985 Yes Yes Also cinematographer and narrator
Murphy Brown 1994, Appeared as himself; Episode: “My Movie with Louis”
