Louis Malle

Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. He was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries, Nord, France. He studied political science at Sciences Po and film studies at IDHEC. He began his career as a co-director and cameraman with Jacques Cousteau on the documentary The Silent World (1956), which won an Oscar and the Palme d'Or. He then made his first feature film, Elevator to the Gallows (1958), a crime thriller with an original score by Miles Davis. He followed it with The Lovers (1958), a controversial romantic drama that was banned for obscenity in some countries. He continued to make films that explored provocative or controversial topics, such as incest, child prostitution, collaboration with the Nazis, and political violence. Some of his most acclaimed works include Lacombe, Lucien (1974), a World War II drama; Pretty Baby (1978), a period drama set in a New Orleans brothel; Atlantic City (1980), a romantic crime film starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon; My Dinner with Andre (1981), a dramedy based on a conversation between two friends; and Au revoir les enfants (1987), an autobiographical film about his childhood experience of witnessing the deportation of Jewish students from his Catholic boarding school during the German occupation of France. He also made films in English, such as The Fire Within (1963), Murmur of the Heart (1971), Alamo Bay (1985), and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). He was married twice, first to actress Anne-Marie Deschodt and then to actress Candice Bergen. He had three children: Manuel Cuotemoc Malle, a writer and director; Justine Malle, a filmmaker; and Chloé Françoise Malle, a journalist. He died of lymphoma at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 63. He was buried in Le Mesnil-le-Roi, Yvelines, France. He was regarded as one of the most influential and versatile filmmakers of his generation. He received numerous awards and honors for his work, including three Césars, two BAFTAs, three Oscar nominations, two Golden Lions, and a fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He was described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down" by critics and colleagues.