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Jean-Pierre
Melville |
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Director / Screenwriter /
Producer |
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1917 - 1973 |
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Born October 20,
Paris, France |
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Key
Production Countries: France, Italy |
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Key Genres:
Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Crime,
Drama, Crime Thriller, Gangster Film,
Caper |
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Key
Collaborators: Henri Decae (Cinematographer), Monique
Bonnot
(Editor), Jean-Marie Robain (Character Player), Alain Delon (Leading
Player), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Leading Player), Paul Crauchet (Character
Player), Howard Vernon (Character Player), Jean-Pierre Posier (Character Player), Theo Meurisse
(Production Designer), Daniel Gueret (Production Designer) |
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Highly
Recommended: Bob le flambeur (1955)*, Le Doulos
(1962),
Second Breath (1966)*, Le
Samouraï (1967)*, The Red Circle (1970)* |
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Recommended:
Le Silence de la mer (1947), Les Enfants terribles (1949),
Army of Shadows (1969)*, Dirty Money (1972) |
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Worth a Look: Léon Morin, Priest (1961),
L'Aine des Ferchaux
(1963) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links:
[
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Strictly
Film School ] [
Wikipedia ] [
The Criterion Collection ] [
Guardian
Article (2003) ] [
kamera
Article ] [
Films de France ]
[
Film Noir Foundation Article (PDF) ] |
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Books: [
Melville
on Melville ] [
Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris ] |
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"Melville
was a precise, methodical director with a predilection for
themes of war and crime. The former preoccupation was
attributable to his own experiences, and the latter was the
probable result of his nostalgic admiration for the Hollywood
cinema of the 30s... Beginning in the early 60s, Melville worked
with larger budgets and with name stars like Jean-Paul Belmondo
and Alain Delon and showed an increasingly technical mastery of
the medium." -
(The
MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994) |
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"He had a built-in
breathlessness, in fact, an adopted resignation to transience
and mutability that is partly an eccentric individualism and
partly what Melville inherited from American mobility and
obsolescence. It gives his gangster films a true supercharge -
"en quatrième vitesse" - and he transformed Belmondo and Delon
into beautiful destructive angels of the dark street." -
David
Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)
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"Powerful
endings and memorable set-pieces have a place in all Melville's
work, even the earlier films, some of which are far removed from
his later world of 'flics' and gangs', where the night-time
photography glitters as cold and metallic as a gun barrel." -
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Betrayal, revenge, and the criminal mind are significant
elements in the work of Melville. His films are not so much
reflections of the Hollywood crime genre as indications of a
unique sensibility creating from the same source material -
crime and criminals." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we
haven't seen include Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'un clown
(1945), Quand tu liras
cette lettre (1953), and Two Men in Manhattan (1959). |
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8+ |
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"Melville
gained most fame for such dry, laconic gangster films a s
Bob le flambeur (1955), Le Doulos (1962),
Second Breath (1966), and Le Samourai (1967).
Expressionless men in trenchcoats and snap-brim hats stalk
through gray streets to meet in piano bars. Almost
completely impassive, they behave as if they have watched
too many Hollywood films noirs -driving American sedans,
pledging loyalty to their pals, dividing duties for a caper
they intend to pull. Melville dwells on long silences as
gunmen size each other up, stare at their reflections, or
stoically realize that a deal has failed. The films teem
with bravura techniques - hand-held camerawork, long takes,
and available-light shooting… Melville loved to watch
movies. ("Being a spectator is the finest profession in the
world.") Many of his films are tributes to American cinema,
and he brought to French film some of the audacious energy
of Hollywood B pictures. If
Renoir fathered the New
Wave, Melville was its godfather."
-
Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell,
Film History: An Introduction |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
| ●
100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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