About Me
Malle was born into a wealthy family in Thumeries, Nord, France. He initially studied political science at the Sorbonne before turning to film studies instead. He worked as an assistant to Jacques Cousteau on the documentary The Silent World (1956) and assisted Robert Bresson on A Man Escaped (1956) before making his first feature, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Frantic, re-released in 2005 as Elevator to the Gallows) in 1957.Malle's Les Amants (1958), which like Ascenseur pour l'échafaud starred Jeanne Moreau, caused some controversy due to its sexual content.Malle was not, ever, in any way, associated with the nouvelle vague - his work doesn't fit in or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with Cahiers du cinema. Nonetheless, his film Zazie dans le métro (1960, an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel) did inspire Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle about Zazie; Truffaut probably felt that the film placed style-before subject -- an indication that Malle was heading off in an auteurist direction. (This assumption proved false; Zazie, like Malle's other films, places a flexible array of styles at the service of their respective subjects).Other films also tackled taboo subjects: Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within, 1963) centres on a man about to commit suicide, Le souffle au cœur (1971) deals with an incestuous relationship between mother and son and Lacombe Lucien (1974) is about French collaboration and resistance in World War II.Malle later moved to Hollywood and continued to direct there. His later films include Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1981), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Au revoir, les enfants (1987), Milou en Mai (May Fools, 1990), Damage (1992), and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya).Malle was married to Anne-Marie Deschodt from 1965 – 1967. He later married the actress Candice Bergen in 1981. They had a daughter, Chloe Malle, in 1985. He also had a son, Manuel Cuotemoc (born 1971), with former girlfriend Gila von Weitershausen.He died at his home in Beverly Hills of lymphoma, aged 63.A number of books have been written on Malle. The interview collection Malle on Malle was published by Faber in 1992 and revised, after the director's death, in 1996. The Films of Louis Malle: A Critical Analysis, a detailed critical exploration of Malle's films, written by Nathan Southern and Jacques Weissgerber, was published by McFarland in 2005.
