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Jean-Pierre Melville
Jean-Pierre Melville was one of the most important film-makers to emerge from post-war France. The son of Alsatian Jews, Melville was an active member of the French Resistance during the war, and also took part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France in August 1944.
After the war, Melville found himself unable to access the French studio system directly, and so set up his own studio. His first feature, Le Silence De La Mer (The Silence of the Sea) (1949) was a very low-budget wartime drama, reflecting on the strained relations between an ordinary French family and a Francophile Nazi officer. The film was a critical and commercial success, and allowed Melville the freedom to continue making films through his own studios.
Melville's film-making style is particularly recognised for developing a "reportage" style of shooting (he was one of the first in French cinema to use real locations) as well as bringing American film noir sensibilities into French cinema, and is recognised today as being one of the key influences on the French New Wave movement.
Most of Melville's films (with the notable exception of the hugely influencial Les Enfants Terribles and a few others) are divided up between crime films and wartime occupation films. These two strains came to their conclusions with L'Armee Des Ombres ( Army Of Shadows) (1969), a broad-canvas film charting one man's life in the French Resistance, and Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) (1970), a heist movie. Both were enormously influencial, with such film-makers as Jim Jarmuch, Quentin Tarantino and John Woo siting them as key influences.
Melville died of a heart attack in 1973, aged 55.
What members say |
Filmography
Jean-Pierre Melville - what members say
Jean-Pierre Melville - filmography
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Un Flic
on DVD
(1971)
Starring: Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Crenna
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate: 
Simon (Delon) is a Paris nightclub owner and the leader of a gang of bank robbers. When he and his buddies knock over a small town bank, one of his accomplices is wounded. It isn't long before the local police commissioner, Edourd, takes an interest in the case, and who, unfortunately, is one of ..read more »
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70%
from 153 members
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Le Cercle Rouge
on DVD
(1970)
Starring: Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate: 
Jean-Pierre Melville's hugely influential film remains a cornerstone of the crime genre. Recently released from prison, thief Corey (Alain Delon) finds himself caught up in a dangerous triangle with a mysterious woman (Gian Maria Volonte) and an ex-cop with some issues of his own (Yves Montand). ..read more »
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68%
from 2,126 members
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Army Of Shadows
on DVD
(1969)
Starring: Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura, Jean-Pierre Cassell
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
During a tragic period in humanity, Philippe Gerbier is an ordinary man who finds himself in the center of extraordinary events, alongside compatriots Mathilde, Luc Jardie, Francois, Le Masque and Felix, who are members of the Resistance. Among other notables like "Colonel Passy" -- one of DeGaulle'..read more »
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76%
from 1,470 member
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Le Samourai
(1967)
Starring: Alain Delon, Francois Perier, Nathalie Delon
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
Hitman Jeff Costello is a perfectionist who always carefully plans his murders and who never gets caught. One night however, after killing a night-club owner, he's seen by witnesses. His efforts to provide himself with an alibi fail and more and more he gets driven into a corner.
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79%
from 294 members
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Le Doulos
on DVD
(1963)
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
This complex down-beat thriller follows the fatalistic relationship between two men: Maurice Faugel, a crook just out of prison and Silien (Belmondo), who may or may not be a doulos or finger man (a kind of high-class informer). Maurice, wasting no time, immediately begins to put himself on the ..read more »
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70%
from 1,185 member
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Leon Morin, Pretre
on DVD
(1961)
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva, Irene Tunc
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
Jean-Paul Belmondo (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE) stars in this film set during the French Occupation. He plays Leon Morin, a handsome young priest who captures the attention of an attractive and flirtatious young widow named Barny (Emmanuele Riva). A communist and an atheist, Barny enters Morin's church on a ..read more »
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68%
from 482 members
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Breathless
on DVD
(1959)
Starring: Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Melville
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Certificate: 
Godard's first feature has been widely hailed as one of the most influential motion pictures ever made. On the run after killing a cop, a small-time crook (Belmondo) hides out in Paris with an American girl (Seberg). After she betrays him, he chooses to face his fate with an absurd stoicism ..read more »
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66%
from 6,697 members
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Bob Le Flambeur
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Isabelle Corey, Roger Duchesne, Daniel Cauchy
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
In 'Bob Le Flambeur' Bob is a gambler whose luck seems to have run out. In desperation, and despite his friend's warning, he plans to rob a casino. When police are made aware of his plans, it could be that Bob's game is over.
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71%
from 812 members
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Le Silence De La Mer
on DVD
(1949)
Starring: Nicole Stephane, Jean-Marie Robain, Howard Vernon
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate: 
The debut film from acclaimed French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville (LE SAMOURAI, LE CERCLE ROUGE), LE SILENCE DE LA MER is considered by many to be one of the most important films to deal with the German occupation of France during World War II and is based upon on the novella by French Resistance ..read more »
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71%
from 358 members
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Les Enfants Terribles
on DVD
(1949)
Starring: Nicole Stephane, Edouard Dhermitte, Renee Cosima
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Certificate:
Cinema giants Jean-Pierre Melville (UN FLIC) and Jean Cocteau (LA BELLE AT LA BETE) collaborated to create LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES, a stunning portrait of surreal perversion and narcissism based on Cocteau's novel of the same name. When teenage Paul, the fragile protagonist, is mysteriously felled by ..read more »
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61%
from 664 members
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Jean-Pierre Melville facts
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Fine piece of film noir 26 July 2004
...ot on their trail is the experienced detective Mattei (Bourvil).
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, this European crime flick wears its American influences on its sleeve. Buildin...
The solidarity of silence 25 December 2008
