Jean-Pierre Melville
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.
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.
Photos
Movies (37)
Delon-Melville, la solitude de deux samouraïs
2024 · Self (archive footage)
Les Rois de la comédie
2023 · Self (archive footage)
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
2022
Short Cuts : Le Cercle rouge de Jean-Pierre Melville
2021 · Original Film Writer
Melville, le dernier samouraï
2020 · (archives)
Alain Delon, l'ombre au tableau
2019 · Self (archive footage)
Thlípsi
2018 · Thanks
Lino Ventura, la part intime
2018 · Self (archive footage)
Belmondo, le magnifique
2017 · Self (archive footage)
Melville-Delon: Honor and Night
2011 · Self (archive footage)
Code Name: Melville
2010 · Self (archive footage)
Their First Films
2004 · Director
The Good Thief
2003 · Original Film Writer
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
1999 · Thanks
Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante
1977 · Self (archive footage)
Un Flic
1972 · Director, Writer
Jean-Pierre Melville: Portrait in 9 Poses
1971 · Himself
Le Cercle Rouge
1970 · Director, Editor, Writer
Army of Shadows
1969 · Director, Screenplay
Le Samouraï
1967 · Director, Screenplay
Le Deuxième Souffle
1966 · Writer, Director
Jean-Pierre Melville on the Set of Le Deuxième Souffle
1966 · Self - Interviewee
Magnet of Doom
1963 · Director, Dialogue, Screenplay
Bluebeard
1963 · Clemenceau's Aide
Le Doulos
1962 · Director, Screenplay
Le Combat dans l'île
1962 · Un membre de l'organisation (uncredited)
Sign of the Lion
1962 · Un Consommateur (uncredited)
Léon Morin, Priest
1961 · Director, Writer
Breathless
1960 · Parvulesco the Writer
Two Men in Manhattan
1959 · Moreau, Director, Writer
A Girl in a Pocket
1957 · Commissioner
Bob le Flambeur
1956 · Narrator (voice) (uncredited), Director, Producer, Writer
When You Read This Letter
1953 · Director, Producer
Orpheus
1950 · Hotel Manager (uncredited)
The Strange Ones
1950 · Director, Writer, Producer, Production Design
The Silence of the Sea
1949 · Director, Adaptation, Screenplay, Executive Producer, Editor
24 Hours in the Life of a Clown
1946 · Narrator (uncredited), Director, Producer, Screenplay
