Louis Malle

At 63 years old, Louis Malle physical status not available right now. We will update Louis Malle's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Malle worked as the co-director and cameraman to Jacques Cousteau on the documentary The Silent World (1956), which won an Oscar and the Palme d'Or at the 1956 Academy Awards and Cannes Film Festival respectively. He assisted Robert Bresson on A Man Escaped (French title: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956) before making his first feature, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud in 1957 (released in the U.K. as Lift to the Scaffold and in the U.S. originally as Frantic, later as Elevator to the Gallows). A taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud made an international film star of Jeanne Moreau, at the time a leading stage actress of the Comédie-Française. Malle was 24 years old.

Malle's The Lovers (Les Amants, 1958), which also starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal definition of obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio, a theater owner was fined $2,500 for obscenity. The decision was eventually reversed by the higher court, which found that the film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected. However, the court could not agree on the definition of "obscene", which caused Justice Potter Stewart to utter his "I know it when I see it" opinion, perhaps the most famous single line associated with the court.

Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague movement. His work does not directly fit in with or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Éric Rohmer and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the Cahiers du cinéma. However, Malle's work does exemplify some of the characteristics of the movement, such as using natural light and shooting on location, and his film Zazie dans le Métro ("Zazie in the Metro", 1960, an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel) inspired Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle.

Other films also tackled taboo subjects: The Fire Within centres on a man about to commit suicide, Le souffle au cœur (1971) deals with an incestuous relationship between mother and son, and Lacombe Lucien (1974), co-written with Patrick Modiano, is about collaboration with the Nazis in Vichy France during World War II. The second of these earned Malle his first (of three) Oscar nominations for "Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced".

Malle visited India in 1968, and made a seven-part documentary series, L'Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage, and a documentary film, Calcutta, which was released in cinemas. Concentrating on real India, its rituals and festivities, Malle fell afoul of the Indian government, which disliked his portrayal of the country, in its fascination with the pre-modern, and consequently banned the BBC from filming in India for several years. Malle later claimed his documentary on India was his favorite film.

Malle later moved to the United States and continued to direct there. His later films include Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Crackers (1984), Alamo Bay (1985), Damage (1992) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya) in English; Au revoir les enfants (1987) and Milou en Mai (May Fools in the U.S., 1990) in French. Just as his earlier films such as The Lovers helped popularize French films in the United States, My Dinner with Andre was at the forefront of the rise of American independent cinema in the 1980s.

Towards the end of his life, Malle was interviewed extensively for The Times by cultural correspondent Melinda Camber Porter. In 1993, the interviews were included in Camber Porter's book Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections On Contemporary French Arts And Culture.

Source

• Le Monde du silence (1956)
  • Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Winner
• The Lovers (1958)
  • Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner
• Le Feu follet (1963)
  • Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner
  • Venice Film Festival Italian Film Critics Award Winner
• The Thief of Paris (1967)
  • 5th Moscow International Film Festival official selection
• Calcutta (1969)
  • Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
  • Melbourne International Film Festival: Grand Prix Winner
• Murmur of the Heart (1971)
  • Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
  • Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nomination
• Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
  • Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nomination
  • Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
  • BAFTA Best Foreign Language Film Winner
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director Nomination
• Pretty Baby (1978)
  • Cannes Film Festival Technical Grand Prize Winner
• Atlantic City (1981)
  • Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Winner
  • Academy Award for Best Director Nomination
  • Academy Award for Best Picture Nomination
  • Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
  • Golden Globes Best Director Nomination
  • BAFTA Best Director Winner
• Crackers (1984)
  • Berlin Film Festival Official Selection
• Goodbye, Children (1987)
  • Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Winner
  • Venice Film Festival OCIC Award Winner
  • Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nomination
  • Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nomination
  • Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Nomination
  • BAFTA Best Director Winner
  • BAFTA Best Film Nomination
  • BAFTA Best Screenplay Nomination
  • Cesar Awards Best Film Winner
  • Cesar Awards Best Director Winner
  • Cesar Awards Best Screenplay Winner
  • European Film Awards Best Screenwriter Winner
  • European Film Awards Best Film Nomination
  • European Film Awards Best Director Nomination
• May Fools (1990)
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Film Nomination