Louis Malle
Some European film directors never make a successful transition to Hollywood - something is lost crossing the Atlantic. Others, by contrast, flourish and develop new and exciting directions for their work - Louis Malle is one of the top examples of this latter group. Born in France in 1932, Malle earned his cinematographic wings working as a camera operator and co-director for Jacques Cousteau's award-winning documentary The Silent World, and as an assistant to film director Robert Bresson. His first solo feature, Elevator to the Gallows, was released in 1957, and defined Malle as a powerful director in his own right. 1959's The Lovers brought further recognition, but also controversy, as the film found itself at the center of a Supreme Court case on the subject of obscenity. Fortunately for Malle, as well as for the arts in America, the Court found the film to be constitutionally protected speech. Malle did not switch to "safer" topics for his later films: an anarchic satire of French society (Zazie in the Metro, 1960), incest (Murmur of the Heart, 1971), and Nazi collaboration (Lacombe Lucien, 1974) were all addressed in his films. He did not do this for shock value, rather, he found within these themes a way to explore subtle aspects of the human psyche, and in particular, views of a harsh world through a maturing child's eyes. This theme also runs through Malle's American films, starting with the dystopic Alice-In-Wonderland-like Black Moon (1975), continuing with the study of child prostitution in Pretty Baby (1978), and culminating with his depiction of the world of Jewish children in a fragile shelter from Nazi deportation in Au revoir, les enfants (1987). Malle was anything but monothematic, though, and his other American films cover a broad palette of subjects, ranging from a waitress and gangster finding fulfillment in the aftermath of a small-time con (Atlantic City, 1980), through a conversation exploring philosophies of art and life (My Dinner With Andre, 1981), to a refracting of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" through the lens of André Gregory's stage production with Wallace Shawn (Vanya on 42nd Street, 1994). Sadly, Louis Malle's creative explorations were cut short by cancer in 1995.
