Jean-Pierre Melville

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Jean-Pierre Melville (born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, October 20, 1917 – August 2, 1973) was a noted French film director. He later adopted the pseudonym Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author, Herman Melville.

Biography

Born in Paris, France, Melville, who was Jewish, served in World War II and fought in Operation Dragoon. When he returned from the war he applied for a license to become an assistant director, but was refused. Without this support, he decided to direct his movies by his own means.

He became an independent film-maker, owning his own studios, and became famous for his tragic, minimalist films noirs, such as Le Samouraï and Le Cercle rouge, starring major, charismatic actors like Alain Delon (probably the definitive 'melvillian' actor), Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura. His directorial style was influenced by American cinema and fetishized accessories like weapons, clothes and especially hats.

His independence and his "reporting" style of film-making (he was one of the first French directors to use real locations) were a major influence on the French New Wave film movement, and he appears as a minor character in Jean-Luc Godard's seminal New Wave film Breathless.

Melville died from a heart attack at the age of 55. To this day he remains an important influence for directors like John Woo, Ringo Lam and Quentin Tarantino.

Filmography

• Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'un clown (1945)
• Le Silence de la mer (1949)
• Les Enfants terribles (1950)
• Quand tu liras cette lettre (When You Read This Letter, 1953)
• Bob le flambeur (1955)
• Deux hommes dans Manhattan (Two Men in Manhattan, 1959)
• Léon Morin, prêtre (Leon Morin, Priest, 1961)
• Le Doulos (Doulos: The Finger Man, 1963)
• L’Aîné des Ferchaux (An Honorable Young Man, 1963)
• Le Deuxième Souffle (Second Breath, 1966)
• Le Samouraï (1967)
• Army of Shadows (L' Armée des ombres, 1969)
• Le Cercle rouge (The Red Circle, 1970)
• Un flic (A Cop, 1972)

Further reading

• Jean-Pierre Melville - An American in Paris (2003) by Ginette Vincendeau (ISBN 0-85170-949-4)

External links

• Jean-Pierre Melville at the Internet Movie Database
• Bibliography of books and articles about Melville via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Jean-Pierre Melville World Socialist Web Site

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Last updated on Wednesday March 05, 2008 at 22:12:22 PST (GMT -0800)
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