Louis Malle

One of the most consistently innovative filmmakers of his generation, Louis Malle has rarely received the critical attention his work deserves. Unlike the other directors most often associated with the French New Wave--Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Chabrol--Malle did not contribute criticism to Cahiers du Cinema; unlike those filmmakers, he came from a privileged background, as an heir to the Beghin sugar fortune. His work is not easily evaluated according to the tenets of the auteur theory promoted by these critics-turned-filmmakers, who emphasized consistently recognizable stylistic or thematic traits in directors' work. From undersea documentaries to "films noirs", from exposes on poverty to extended dinner conversations, Louis Malle's work could hardly be more diverse.

A graduate of IDHEC (the French government's prestigious filmmaking school), Malle began his career working with Jacques Cousteau on "Le Monde du silence" (1955) and assisting Robert Bresson on "A Condemned Man Escapes" (1956). His first feature was a stylish commercial thriller, "Elevator to the Gallows" (1957). International recognition came the next year with "The Lovers", a study of upper-class ennui which featured a dazzling performance by Jeanne Moreau and which, due to its sexual frankness, was the first of Malle's films to generate scandal. Others include "Zazie dans le metro" (1960), the story of a foul-mouthed pre-teenager; "The Fire Within" (1963), a masterful study of mental disintegration; "Murmur of the Heart" (1971), a light, comic tale of incest; and "Lacombe Lucien" (1974), whose opportunistic protagonist sets out to become a hero of the Resistance but learns the fine art of political collaboration under the Nazis.

Malle also produced an impressive body of documentary filmmaking, beginning with his collaboration with Cousteau. In 1969 he released "Calcutta," an extended expose of the city's incredible poverty and overpopulation; this was followed by a 6-hour series of documentary films, "Phantom India" (1969), shown originally on French TV. "Place de la Republique" (1973) featured confrontational remarks by passers-by at this Parisian intersection, and "Humain trop humain" (1973) explored, without recourse to narration, the dehumanizing effects of assembly-line manufacture.

In 1978 Malle returned to provocative fictional subjects with "Pretty Baby", a tale of child prostitution in WWI-era New Orleans, starring Brooke Shields and Keith Carradine. Two outstanding American films followed: "Atlantic City" (1980), involving a has-been gangster (Burt Lancaster) and a city in transition, and "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), a lengthy conversation between playwright Wallace Shawn and director Andre Gregory. "Au Revoir les enfants" (1987) marked Malle's professional return to France. An explicitly autobiographical work about boyhood friendships and betrayal during the German Occupation, it is perhaps his most successful film in terms of public and critical response. He helmed the slight but diverting comedy "May Fools" (1990) set in the French countryside in 1968 as the students rioted in Paris, and then collaborated again with actor Wallace Shawn and director Andre Gregory on what was to be his last film, "Vanya on 42nd Street" (1994). The feature depicts a troupe of actors rehearsing Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" (translated by David Mamet) in the dilapidated New Amsterdam Theater in NYC. Malle was married to actress Candice Bergen from 1980 until his death from lymphoma in 1995.