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Louis Malle __________________________
France (1932-95)
At a time when directors' individual styles were valued above all, Malle's eagerness to embrace different subjects may have worked against his critical reputation. Unlike fellow countrymen Truffaut, Godard, and Resnais, however, Malle maintained an audience while continuing to grow as an artist. He returned to fictional films with one of his most daring efforts, Murmur of the Heart (1971), a charming, intelligent exploration of adolescence and bourgeois contentment, which raised eyebrows over its depiction of an incestuous relationship between a mother and son. (It nevertheless earned Malle an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.) Even better-though just as controversial-was Lacombe, Lucien (1974), a shattering study of French collaboration during World War 2, which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. After Black Moon (1975), an awkward attempt at fantasy, Malle made his American film debut with Pretty Baby (1978), an elegant but bloodless tale of a photographer and a twelve-year-old prostitute (Brooke Shields). Then came Atlantic City (1980), a sleeper about an aging gangster and a younger woman; it was a magical fusion of American themes and European tone, and it earned Malle an Oscar nomination as Best Director. His next film, My Dinner With Andre (1981), could have been merely a stunt, depicting friends talking over dinner for almost two hours, but it took on a life of its own, as a bold comment on artistic temperaments-and an audacious cinematic coup.
Two negligible American films followed-Crackers (1984) and Alamo Bay (1985)-before Malle returned to France to make the devastating, autobiographical Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987, Oscar nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film). A powerful vignette from Malle's childhood in wartime France, it was a subject he wanted to tackle earlier-but couldn't face. May Fools (1990) was a leisurely essay on complacency in light of the events of May 1968. In stark contrast, the English language Damage (1992) returned to the theme of adultery and caused a flap over scenes that had to be trimmed in the U.S. to avoid an NC-17 rating. In typical idiosyncratic fashion, Malle next made Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), a bold, challenging, and deliberately small-scale adaptation of "Uncle Vanya." He also directed the documentaries Humain, trop humain (1972) and Place de la Republique (1973) and contributed the "William Wilson" episode to 1968's Spirits of the Dead. He has been married to actress Candice Bergen since 1980 and made an appearance-as himself-on a 1994 episode of her longrunning sitcom "Murphy Brown."
(Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia. Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin)
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One of France's most acclaimed directors, Malle rose to prominence during the New Wave and has maintained a remarkably consistent critical and popular consensus, with an extraordinary variety of films. The scion of a wealthy industrial family, Malle studied political science at the Sorbonne, but, against his parents' wishes, turned to film studies at the Institut des Hautes ètudes Cinématographiques. He served as an assistant to explorer Jacques Cousteau, with whom he codirected the Oscarwinning documentary The Silent WorldI (1956), then made short films on his own, and assisted Robert Bresson on A Man Escaped (1956) before writing and directing his first feature, Frantic (1957), starring a young Jeanne Moreau. Malle's next film, The Lovers (1958), caused a scandal with its beautifully photographed and highly sensual depiction of a bored wife's extramarital affair. It firmly established Malle's reputation, and made Moreau a star. Varied projects followed: the frenetic comedy Zazie dans le Metro (1960), A Very Private Affair (1962, with Brigitte Bardot playing a spoiled movie star), and The Fire Within (1963), a powerful look at the last days of a writer before he kills himself. Following the wild, raucous Viva Maria! (1965, costarring Bardot and Moreau) and the period piece The Thief of Paris(1967), Malle claimed he was tired of "actors, studios, fiction, and Paris" and headed for India where he made Calcutta and Phantom India (both 1969), outstanding documentaries which revealed the beauty, complexity, and misery of the country.