Shoes

Personal Info

Known For

Directing

Gender

Male

Birthday

1917-10-20

Place of Birth

Paris, France

Jean-Pierre Melville

Biography

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.

Known for

Midi trente

Midi trente

Cinépanorama

Cinépanorama

Breathless

Breathless

A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.

Orpheus

Orpheus

A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.

Bluebeard

Bluebeard

Paris, France, during the First World War. While thousands of soldiers die every day on the battlefields, Henri Landru, a seemingly respectable furniture dealer, married and father of four children, relentlessly feeds his own sinister factory of death.

Jean-Pierre Melville on the Set of Le Deuxième Souffle

Jean-Pierre Melville on the Set of Le Deuxième Souffle

Director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Lino Ventura are interviewed about their 1966 film.

Belmondo, le magnifique

Belmondo, le magnifique

With more than 70 films and 160 million cumulative tickets in France, Jean-Paul Belmondo is one of the essential stars of French cinema.

Bob le Flambeur

Bob le Flambeur

In Paris, Bob Montagne is practically synonymous with gambling -- and winning. He is kind, classy and well-liked by virtually everyone in town, including police inspector Ledru. However, when Bob's luck turns sour, he begins to lose friends and makes the most desperate gamble of his life: to rob the Deauville casino during Grand Prix weekend, when the vaults are full. Unfortunately, Bob soon learns that the game is rigged and the cops are on to him.

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Le Combat dans l'île

Le Combat dans l'île

The charismatic, surly son of a wealthy industrialist, Clément, leads a double life as a member of a right-wing extremist organization. When he’s ratted out after a failed assassination attempt on a prominent politician, Clément and his long-suffering wife Anne flee Paris to the idyllic country home of his childhood friend, pacifist print-maker Paul. As affection blossoms between Paul and Anne, the emotional, as well as political tensions, soar and eventually explode.

Sign of the Lion

Sign of the Lion

An American in Paris lives by sponging off his working friends, and throws a party using borrowed money when his rich American aunt dies, believing firmly in his horoscope.

Melville-Delon: Honor and Night

Melville-Delon: Honor and Night

Documentary exploring the friendship between French director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Alain Delon, and their collaboration on the 1967 film Le samouraï.

Two Men in Manhattan

Two Men in Manhattan

Two French journalists become embroiled in a criminal plot in New York City involving a disappeared United Nations diplomat.

24 Hours in the Life of a Clown

24 Hours in the Life of a Clown

The movie follows the clock round as music hall clown Beby takes off his make up, goes home for a meal, looks at photos and goes to bed to rise, spend a day in the village and perform with his new partner.

Lino Ventura, la part intime

Lino Ventura, la part intime

The fall of 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of Lino Ventura's death. Whether in the role of tough cops or tough guys - in the 1960s, Lino Ventura was one of the most popular French character actors. The new portrait begins with the actor's childhood. He came to Paris from Parma in Italy as a child with his single mother and faced many humiliations in a xenophobic environment. The documentary explores the man behind the rough exterior and the tough characters he embodied, most of whom were courageous but introverted loners.