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 for Academy Awards. Malle is also one of the few directors to have won the Golden Lion multiple times. Malle worked in both French cinema and Hollywood, and he produced both French and English language films. His most famous films include the crime film "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), the World War II drama "Lacombe, Lucien" (1974), the romantic crime film "Atlantic City" (1980), the comedy-drama "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), and the autobiographical film "Au Revoir les Enfants" (1987). Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries, Nord, France. He initially studied political science at Sciences Po before turning to film studies at IDHEC instead. He assisted Robert Bresson on "A Man Escaped" (1956) before making his first feature, "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), a taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, which 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" (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. Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague movement, and while Malle's work does not directly fit in with or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the Cahiers du cinéma, his films do exemplify many of the characteristics of the movement, such as using natural light and shooting on location, and his film "Zazie dans le Métro" (1960), an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel, inspired Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle. In 1968 Malle visited India and made a seven-part documentary series "Phantom India" (1969), 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. 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.

Filmography

• 2022La Vie en Gris: The Anglophone Louis Malle in Seven Pictures
• 2014A Master Builder — In Memory Of
• 2012The Bardot mystery
• 2010Ekeb of Dekye — Original Story
• 2003The Passions of Louis Malle
• Storyville
• 1996The Ogre — In Memory Of
• 1994Vanya on 42nd Street — Director
• 1992Damage — Producer, Director
• 1992La Vie de Bohème — Gentleman
• 1990May Fools — Producer, Screenplay, Director
• 1987Au Revoir les Enfants — Screenplay, Director, Producer
• 1986… And the Pursuit of Happiness — Narrator (voice), Director, Producer, Director of Photography
• 1985Alamo Bay — Director, Producer
• 1985God's Country — Narrator (voice), Director, Director of Photography
• 1984Crackers — Director
• 1984My Dinner with Louis — Interviewee
• 1982Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter — Reader - Melies Catalogue (voice)
• 1981My Dinner with Andre — Director
• 1980Atlantic City — Director
• 1978Pretty Baby — Story, Director, Producer
• 1977Close up: Dominique Sanda ou le rêve éveillé — Director
• 1975Black Moon — Writer, Director
• 1974A Human Condition — Director
• 1974Lacombe, Lucien — Director, Writer, Producer
• 1974Place de la République — Self, Director
• 1973Français, si vous saviez — Delegated Producer
• 1971Murmur of the Heart — Director, Writer
• 1969A Very Curious Girl — Jésus
• 1969Calcutta — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• Phantom India — Self - Narrator, Director, Writer
• 1968Spirits of the Dead — Director, Screenplay, Adaptation
• 1967The Thief of Paris — Extra (uncredited), Director, Screenplay
• 1966Young Törless — Producer
• 1965The Thief of Tibadabo — Producer
• 1965Viva Maria! — Director, Screenplay
• 1964Best Regards from Bangkok — Director
• 1963The Fire Within — Screenplay, Director
• 1962A Very Private Affair — Le journaliste (uncredited), Director, Writer
• 1962Vive Le Tour — Writer, Director, Director of Photography
• 1960Zazie dans le Métro — Screenplay, Director, Producer
• 1958Elevator to the Gallows — Screenplay, Director
• 1958The Lovers — Director
• 1956The Silent World — Cinematography, Director, Director of Photography
• 1955La Fontaine-de-Vaucluse — Director
• 1955Station 307 — Writer, Director, Director of Photography
• 1954Crazeologie — Director

Appearances as themselves (26)

• 2025Louis Malle, le révolté — Self (archive footage)
• Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields — Self (archive footage)
• 2021Becoming Cousteau — Self (archive footage)
• 2020L'affaire Matzneff — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2018Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2016Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown — Self (archive footage)
• 2015Louis Malle, le rebelle — Self (archive footage)
• 2009On the Trail of the New Wave — Self (archive footage)
• 2007365 Day Project — Self
• 1997Who Is Henry Jaglom? — Self
• 1993Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II — Self
• 1985Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years — Self
• 1984The Road to Bresson — Self
• 1982Hollywood’s Children — Self
• Ciné regards — Self
• Les Rendez-vous du dimanche — Self
• 1975The Lion Roars Again — Self (uncredited)
• Spécial cinéma — Self
• Film '72 — Self
• Samedi soir — Self
• 1967The Birth of Children of Paradise — Self
• 1966Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson — Self
• Pour le plaisir — Self
• Discorama — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self