Arguably a pioneer of the French New Wave (with Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, 1957) Louis Malle went on to enjoy an acclaimed yet provocative and versatile transatlantic career. This collection of original essays proposes to reassess his richly eclectic and boldly subversive oeuvre and redress the surprising critical neglect it has suffered over the years. It does so through a combination of transversal and monographic analyses that use a variety of critical lenses and theoretical tools in order to examine Malle’s documentaries as well as his fiction features (and, more importantly, the constant shuttling and uniquely persistent cross-pollination between those two cinematic approaches), illuminate the profound, lasting dialogue his films entertained with literature and theater, bring to the fore their sustained, albeit often oblique autobiographical thrust along with their scathing sociopolitical critique, and scrutinize the alternating use of stars and non-professional actors.
In addition, the volume features an exclusive interview with the acclaimed playwright John Guare (a close friend and collaborator of Louis Malle’s who scripted Atlantic City) and is bookended by a foreword by Volker Schlöndorff and an afterword by Wes Anderson, two renowned filmmakers who articulate their admiration for, and the seminal influence of, their predecessor.
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword, by Volker Schlöndorff
- Introduction, by Philippe Met
- Transversal Studies
- 1. Malle Before Malle, by Guillaume Soulez
- 2. The Art of Silence: From Documentary to Fiction, by Caroline Eades
- 3. No Comment: Direct Cinema in Humain, trop humain and Place de la République, by Derek Schilling
- 4. Louis Malle’s Nonfiction: Tradition, Rebellion and Authorial Voice, by Alan Williams
- 5. Louis Malle’s 1960s ‘Star’ Films, by Sue Harris
- 6. Experimentation and Automation in Zazie dans le métro and Black Moon, by Ian Fleishman
- 7. Louis Malle and ‘His’ Writers (Drieu La Rochelle, Nimier, Modiano) , by Michel Ciment
- 8. A Gendered Geography of Death: Louis Malle’s Orphic Voyage, by T. Jefferson Kline
- 9. The Figure of the Mother in May Fools, Au revoir les enfants and Murmur of the Heart, by Justine Malle
- 10. Jazz as Counterpoint in Elevator to the Gallows, Murmur of the Heart and Pretty Baby, by Jean-Louis Pautrot
- Monographic Essays
- 11. The Fire Within: Touching, by Elisabeth Cardonne-Arlyck
- 12. Le Voleur: (Self-)Portrait of the Filmmaker as a Thief, by Philippe Met
- 13. Absorbtion and Reflectivity in Phantom India, by Ludovic Cortade
- 14. Fog of War: Lacombe Lucien and Its Afterlives, by Steven Ungar
- 15. Memory, Friendship and History in Au revoir les enfants, by Sandy Flitterman-Lewis
- 16. Atlantic City: When Sound Meets Utopia, by Francesca Cinelli
- 17. Between Conversation and Conversion: My Dinner with André, by Tom Conley
- 18. Vanya on 42nd Street: Inventing a Space of Creation, by Sébastien Rongier
- Interview
- Truth and Poetry: An Interview with John Guare, by Philippe Met
- Varia (previously unpublished material)
- Notes for a Lecture on the Queen Elizabeth 2, by Louis Malle
- ‘The Loner’: Treatment suggested by H. James’ What Maisie Knew, by Louis Malle (with introduction by Philippe Met)
- Afterword, by Wes Anderson
- Filmography
- Index
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