Elevator to the Gallows

Louis Malle (born October 30, 1932, Thumeries, France—died November 23, 1995, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.) French motion-picture director whose eclectic films were noted for their emotional realism and stylistic simplicity.

Malle’s wealthy family resisted his early interest in film but allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris in 1950. After studying at the institute, he worked as an assistant to filmmaker Robert Bresson and codirected the documentary Le Monde du silence (1956; The Silent World) with underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Malle’s first feature film, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1957; Frantic), was a psychological thriller. His second, Les Amants (1958; The Lovers), was a commercial success and established Malle and its star, Jeanne Moreau, in the film industry. The film’s lyrical love scenes, tracked with exquisite timing, exhibit Malle’s typically bold and uninhibited treatment of sensual themes. Social alienation and isolation was the subject of Le Feu follet (1963; The Fire Within), which was acclaimed by critics as Malle’s most mature and sophisticated work. The sombre and keenly observed story of the last days of an alcoholic contemplating suicide demonstrated his versatility as a filmmaker. In Malle’s next major film, Le Voleur (1967; The Thief of Paris), a gentleman is driven to become a thief out of hatred of himself and his bourgeois origins. Malle’s other films of the 1960s include the zany comedy Zazie dans le métro (1960) and the musical satire Viva Maria (1965).

Malle’s six-month-long stay in India resulted in a feature-length documentary, Calcutta (1969), and a seven-part television series, L’Inde fantôme (Phantom India), which was broadcast internationally to great acclaim. Two of his films of the early 1970s were notable for their moving simplicity: Le Souffle au coeur (1971; Murmur of the Heart), a tenderly treated comedy about an adolescent boy; and Lacombe, Lucien (1973), about a bored teenager who becomes an informer for the Gestapo during the German occupation of France.

Malle moved to the United States in 1975. In 1978 he directed Pretty Baby, the story of a 12-year-old resident of a brothel in New Orleans. His later films include the critically acclaimed Atlantic City (1980), a comedy-drama about the emotional renewal of a small-time criminal; My Dinner with André (1981), an unusual film consisting almost entirely of a dinner-table conversation between two characters; and Au revoir les enfants (1987; Goodbye, Children), an autobiographical reminiscence of life in a Roman Catholic boys’ school in occupied France during World War II. Malle’s last film was Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), in which a theatre ensemble gives a reading of Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya. —bio.