Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville
Born	Jean-Pierre Grumbach 20 October 1917(1917-10-20) Paris, France
Died	2 August 1973 (aged 55) Paris, France
Years active	(1945–1972)

Jean-Pierre Melville (20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker. Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, he later adopted the pseudonym Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author, Herman Melville.

Biography

Born in Paris, France, Melville, who was an Alsatian Jew, 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 films by his own means.

He became an independent film-maker, owning his own studios, and became well known for his tragic, minimalist film noirs, such as Le Samouraï (1967) and Le Cercle rouge (1969), 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 regularly) 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.

Filmography

As director

As actor

Further reading

• Ginette Vincendeau Jean-Pierre Melville - An American in Paris, 2003, BFI Publishing, 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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