Directing

Louis Malle

Born October 30, 1932 · Thumeries, Nord, France

Died November 23, 1995 · aged 63

Louis Marie Malle (30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. His film "The Silent World" won the Palme d'Or in 1956 and the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1957, although he was not credited at the ceremony with the award instead being presented to the film's co-director Jacques Cousteau. Later in his career he was nominated multiple times fo…

Known For

Damage

MovieDramaRomance

The life of a respected British politician at the height of his career crumbles when he becomes obsessed with his son's lover.

Pretty Baby

Pretty Baby · 1978

In 1917 New Orleans, a 12-year-old girl is raised in a brothel by her prostitute mother.

Murmur of the Heart

Murmur of the Heart · 1971

Murmur of the Heart

MovieDramaComedy

This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

Elevator to the Gallows

Elevator to the Gallows · 1958

Elevator to the Gallows

MovieCrimeDrama

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Au Revoir les Enfants

Au Revoir les Enfants · 1987

Au Revoir les Enfants

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

Spirits of the Dead

Spirits of the Dead · 1968

Spirits of the Dead

MovieHorrorMystery

Anthology film from three European directors based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe: a cruel countess haunted by a ghostly horse, a sadistic young man haunted by his double, and an alcoholic actor haunted by the Devil.

My Dinner with Andre

My Dinner with Andre · 1981

My Dinner with Andre

MovieDramaComedy

Wally, a struggling playwright and actor, reluctantly agrees to catch up with his old friend Andre, a theater director who disappeared several years prior in order to travel the world. Meeting at a posh Manhattan restaurant, the two share life stories, anecdotes and philosophical musings over the course of an evening meal.

Atlantic City

Atlantic City · 1980

MovieCrimeDrama

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.

Filmography

Sort

Damage

MovieDramaRomance

The life of a respected British politician at the height of his career crumbles when he becomes obsessed with his son's lover.

Director

Pretty Baby

Pretty Baby · 1978

In 1917 New Orleans, a 12-year-old girl is raised in a brothel by her prostitute mother.

Director

Murmur of the Heart

Murmur of the Heart · 1971

Murmur of the Heart

MovieDramaComedy

This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

Director

Elevator to the Gallows

Elevator to the Gallows · 1958

Elevator to the Gallows

MovieCrimeDrama

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Director

Au Revoir les Enfants

Au Revoir les Enfants · 1987

Au Revoir les Enfants

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

Director

Spirits of the Dead

Spirits of the Dead · 1968

Spirits of the Dead

MovieHorrorMystery

Anthology film from three European directors based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe: a cruel countess haunted by a ghostly horse, a sadistic young man haunted by his double, and an alcoholic actor haunted by the Devil.

Director

My Dinner with Andre

My Dinner with Andre · 1981

My Dinner with Andre

MovieDramaComedy

Wally, a struggling playwright and actor, reluctantly agrees to catch up with his old friend Andre, a theater director who disappeared several years prior in order to travel the world. Meeting at a posh Manhattan restaurant, the two share life stories, anecdotes and philosophical musings over the course of an evening meal.

Director

Atlantic City

Atlantic City · 1980

MovieCrimeDrama

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.

Director

A Very Private Affair

A Very Private Affair · 1962

A Very Private Affair

After achieving fame as a movie star, a woman finds her private life invaded by relentless fans, leading her mother’s ex-lover to intervene and offer protection.

Director

Viva Maria!

Viva Maria! · 1965

MovieAdventureComedy

1907 Central America: Maria II is the daughter of an Irish terrorist. After her father's death, she meets Maria I, a performer, and decides to stay with the circus, and on her debut as a singer, unintentionally invents the striptease and makes the circus famous. Their inadvertent encounter with a socialist revolutionary lands them leading a revolution against the dictator, the capitalists, and the Church.

Director

The Fire Within

The Fire Within · 1963

The Fire Within

Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living.

Director

Black Moon

Black Moon · 1975

MovieFantasyHorror

There is a global gender war between men and women. A teenage girl tries to escape this reality and arrives at a hidden place where a strange unicorn lives with a family: sister, brother, many children and an old, bedridden woman who stays in contact with the world through her radio.

Director

Vanya on 42nd Street

Vanya on 42nd Street · 1994

Vanya on 42nd Street

An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.

Director

May Fools

May Fools · 1990

MovieComedyDrama

During the events of May 1968 in France, different worldviews of conflicting relatives collide in their family estate.

Director

The Lovers

The Lovers · 1958

MovieRomanceDrama

A shallow, provincial wife finds her relationship with her preoccupied husband strained by romantic notions, leading her further towards Paris and the country wilderness.

Director

The Ogre

The Ogre · 1996

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.

In Memory Of

La Vie de Bohème

La Vie de Bohème · 1992

La Vie de Bohème

MovieDramaRomance

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.

Gentleman

Lacombe, Lucien

Lacombe, Lucien · 1974

Lacombe, Lucien

In Louis Malle's lauded drama, Lucien Lacombe is a young man living in rural France during World War II who seeks to join the French Resistance. When he is rejected due to his youth, the resentful Lucien allies himself with the Nazis and joins the Gallic arm of their Gestapo. Lucien grows to enjoy the power that comes with his position, but his life is complicated when he falls for France Horn, a beautiful young Jewish woman.

Director

Zazie dans le Métro

Zazie dans le Métro · 1960

Zazie dans le Métro

MovieComedyFantasy

A brash and precocious ten-year-old comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle.

Director

Crackers

Crackers · 1984

MovieActionComedy

Down-and-out Weslake is reduced to minding the counter at a San Francisco pawn shop when he stumbles onto a scheme by some of the boss's disgruntled misfit clients to rob the place. Rather than blow the whistle, however, he insinuates himself as the heist's mastermind.

Director

A Very Curious Girl

A Very Curious Girl · 1969

A Very Curious Girl

MovieDramaComedy

Treated as an outcast and exploited by the villagers of a small town, a young woman liberates herself through sex, which she uses as a tool of economic gain and an instrument of revenge against those who have wronged her.

Jésus

The Thief of Paris

The Thief of Paris · 1967

The Thief of Paris

MovieComedyCrime

In turn-of-the-century Paris, Georges Randal is brought up by his wealthy uncle, who steals his inheritance. Georges hopes to marry his cousin Charlotte, but his uncle arranges for her to marry a rich neighbour. In retaliation, Georges steals the fiancé's family jewels, and enjoys the experience so much that he embarks upon a lifetime of burglary.

Director

Young Törless

Young Törless · 1966

At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.

Producer

The Bardot mystery

The Bardot mystery · 2012

The Bardot mystery

MovieDocumentary

Who hides behind Brigitte Bardot? Extraordinarily photogenic, a tumultuous love life, the ultimate sex symbol for the 1950s and 1960s, the actress, singer and animal rights activist left an indelible mark on her era. Despite over 30,000 photos published in the press, her true personality has long-remained in the shadows.

Phantom India

Phantom India · 1969

SeriesDocumentary

Louis Malle called his gorgeous and groundbreaking Phantom India the most personal film of his career. And this extraordinary journey to India, originally shown as a miniseries on European television, is infused with his sense of discovery, as well as occasional outrage, intrigue, and joy.

Director