Melville, Jean-Pierre

(Jean-Pierre Grumbach / October 20, 1917, Paris, France - August 2, 1973, Paris, France)

   The son of a wholesale merchant, he filmed his first movies with a Pathé Baby camera when he was still a child. He began doing his military service in 1937 but was still in uniform when World War II broke out. In 1940, he was evacuated to England from Dunkirk. He asked to be assigned to the French Free Forces and took part in the African and Italian campaigns and the Provence landing in August 1944. He vainly tried to obtain the trainee assistant direc­tor card and decided to become his own producer. Thanks to the money he won with his first directing effort, the short Vingt-Quatre Heures de la Vie d'un Clown, he financed a personal project (Le Silence de la Mer). The huge commercial success of Quand tu liras cette Lettre allowed him to buy the Jenner stu­dios, which unfortunately were destroyed by fire in 1967 with all the director's archives. His pseudonym is a tribute to one of his favorite writers, Herman Melville. He played small parts in several films (1948 Les Drames du Bois de Boulogne, short, Jacques Loew; 1950 Orphée / USA: Orpheus, Jean Cocteau; 1957 Un Amour de Poche / UK: Nude in His Pocket / USA: Girl in His Pocket, Pierre Kast; 1960 A Bout de Souffle / UK: By a Tether / UK and USA: Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard; 1962 Le Signe du Lion / UK and USA: The Sign of Leo, Eric Rohmer, shot in 1959; 1963 Landru / Landrù / USA: Bluebeard, Claude Chabrol, France / Italy). He died of a heart attack at age fifty-five. In 2002, Neil Jordan filmed a remake of his movie Bob le Flambeur (2002 The Good Thief / L'Homme de la Riviera / Le Dernier Coup de Mr. Bob, Neil Jordan, USA / France / UK / Canada).

 Filmography

1945 ◘ Vingt-quatre Heures de la Vie d'un Clown (short; also screenwriter, producer)

        ◘ Le Silence de la Mer (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist, producer; shot in 1947)

        ◘ Les Enfants terribles / UK and USA: The Strange Ones (also co-screenwriter, producer, produc­tion manager)

1953 ◘ Quand tu liras cette Lettre / Labbra proibite (also producer; France / Italy)

1956 ◘ Bob le Flambeur / UK: Bob the Gambler / USA: Fever Heat (also screenwriter, co-adapter, au­thor of commentary, narrator, producer)

        ◘ L'A.F.P. nous communique (unfinished)

        ◘ Deux Hommes dans Manhattan (also screenwriter, dialogist, producer, co-cinematographer, actor)

1961 ◘ Léon Morin, Prêtre / Leon Morin prete / UK: Leon Morin, Priest / USA: The Forgiven Sinner (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

1963 ◘ Le Doulos / Los spione / UK: The Finger Man / USA: Doulos—The Finger Man (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist, co-editor; France / Italy)

        ◘ L'Aîné des Ferchaux / Lo sciacallo / UK: Magnet of Doom / US TV: An Honorable Young Man (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist; France / Italy)

        ◘ Le Deuxième Souffle / UK and USA: Second Breath (also screenwriter, adapter, co-dialogist, voice)

        ◘ Le Samouraï / Frank Costello, faccia d'angelo / USA: The Godson (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist; France / Italy)

1969 ◘ L'Armée des Ombres / L'armata degli eroi / UK: Army in the Shadows / The Shadow Army / USA: Army of Shadows (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist; France / Italy)

1970 ◘ Le Cercle rouge / I senza nome / UK and USA: The Red Circle (also screenwriter, adapter, di-alogist, editor; France / Italy)

1972 ◘ Un Flic / Notte sulla città / USA: Dirty Money / US DVD: A Cop (also screenwriter, dialogist; France / Italy)