Jean-Pierre Melville (20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker who directed several notable and influential films in the '50s and '60s. Famous especially for his films with Jean-Paul Belmondo, his films with Alain Delon and his crime films.
Melville had a life almost as interesting as the one featured in his movies. Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach to a family of Alsatian Jews, Melville made films from a very young age on a 9.5mm film camera called Pathé Baby. He grew up and became The Movie Buff and developed a Foreign Culture Fetish for America, including American literature and especially the movies. When World War II arrived, Jean-Pierre Grumbach joined the French Resistance, and adopted the nom de guerre of Melville in homage to his favorite writer, Herman Melville.
After the war, Melville decided to make a film. His first choice was an adaptation of the novel Le Silence de la mer by fellow resister Vercors. Melville couldn't get financing from established studios so he made it independently, outside the system. This was actually illegal and forbidden at the time, and Melville was told that he should either pay a fine or not make the film. Melville paid the fine and made the film anyway. It was a critical and commercial success and everyone heralded the arrival of a great new talent in French cinema. Melville subsequently collaborated with French polymath Jean Cocteau on Les Enfants Terribles but found his mark with the classic French caper film, Bob le Flambeur, a major influence on the heist movie genre. Melville's commercial success and business savvy led to him purchasing and owning his own studio. During this time, he became highly popular with the critics of the French New Wave who saw Melville as an inspiration for the kind of films they wanted to make. Melville appeared in a cameo as a Vladimir Nabokov Expy in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, and his studio was used for the finale of Vivre sa vie. Two of Melville's assistant directors, Volker Schlondorff and Bertrand Tavernier became notable directors in their own right.
In the '60s, Melville lost favor with his former admirers even if he found greater commercial success as he made highly stylized, elegant crime films, many of them becoming box-office successes around the world. He's most famous for Le Doulos, Le Samourai and Le Cercle rouge which starred French icon Alain Delon. Towards the end, a fire broke out in his studio slowing his pace and he died after making his final film, Un flic once again starring Delon. Melville's reputation fluctuated after his death but enjoyed a revival in the '90s and the 21st Century. Hong Kong masters like John Woo and Johnnie To cited Melville as their inspiration for their crime films, as did Jim Jarmusch.
His films became popular in the States. His film Army of Shadows never before seen in America arrived in the 21st Century and became an unexpected commercial success in the course of a limited run. Most of his films have been released on The Criterion Collection.
Films with TV Tropes pages:
- Le Silence de la mer
- Les Enfants Terribles (with Jean Cocteau)
- Bob Le Flambeur
- Le Doulos
- Léon Morin, Priest
- Magnet of Doom
- Le Samouraï
- Army of Shadows
- Le Cercle rouge
- Un Flic
