Louis Malle (1932-1995)
The longer I live the less faith I have in ideas and the more I trust my feelings.
Filmography
Crazéologie (short, 1953): Criterion (R1) included as extra in Elevator to the Gallows
Station 307 (short, 1954)
La Fontaine du Vaucluse (short, 1955)
Le Monde du silence (1956): Chinese release (R0)
Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1958): Criterion (R1) / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume One
Les Amants (1958): Criterion (R1) / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume One
Zazie dans le métro (1960): Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume One
Vie privée (1961): Warner (R2)
Vive le tour (short, 1962): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Touiste encore (short, 1963?)
Le Feu follet (1963): Criterion (R1) / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume One
Bons baisers de Bangkok (TV, 1964)
Viva Maria! (1965): MGM (R1)
Le Voleur (1967): MGM (R2)
William Wilson (segment of Histoires extraordinaires, 1968): Homevision (R1)
Marionnettes indiennes (short, 1968)
Calcutta (1969): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
L’Inde fantôme (TV, 1969): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Le Souffle au coeur (1971): Criterion (R1) / Criterion (R1) included on 3 Films by Louis Malle / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume Two
Humain, trop humain (1974): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Lacombe Lucien (1974): Criterion (R1) / Criterion (R1) included on 3 Films by Louis Malle / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume Two
Place de la république (1974): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Black Moon (1975): Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume Two
Close Up (short, 1976)
Pretty Baby (1978): Paramount (R1)
Atlantic City (1980): Paramount (R1)
My Dinner with Andre (1981): Criterion (R1)
Crackers (1984)
Alamo Bay (1985)
God’s Country (TV, 1986): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
And the Pursuit of Happiness (TV, 1986): Eclipse (R1) included on Series 2 – The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Au revoir les enfants (1987): Criterion (R1) included on 3 Films by Louis Malle / Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume Two
Milou en mai (1990): Optimum (R2) included on Louis Malle – Volume Two
Damage (1992): New Line (R1)
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994): Sony (R1)
Forum Discussions
3 Films by Louis Malle
The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Elevator to the Gallows
The Fire Within and The Lovers
My Dinner with Andre
Le Voleur
Web Resources
Philip French on Louis Malle
Official site
Senses of Cinema, review of the documentaries
They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?
Wikipedia entry
IMDb
Books
Malle on Malle - Philip French (Faber & Faber, 1996)
Louis Malle: Le rebelle solitaire - Pierre Billard (Plon, 2003)
Louis Malle - Hugo Frey (Manchester University Press, 2004)
The Films of Louis Malle: A Critical Analysis - Nathan Southern, Jacques Weissgerber (McFarland, 2005)
This is probably not entirely accurate, please feel free to correct and enhance.
Louis Malle
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Numero Trois
- Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:23 am
- Location: Florida
Re: Louis Malle
A Very Private Affair(Vie privée, 1961) plays on TCM on June 27 early Monday morning.
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hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Louis Malle
Saw Atlantic City at Quad Cinema and John Guare told some wonderful stories afterward, which I'll go ahead and repeat here before I forget. (I'm sure there's a good chance some of this has been told many times - some anecdotes were familiar, but I have no idea where I heard them, especially since the DVD and Blu-ray have no extras.)
Guare got a call from Malle sometime in July of 1979. He didn't know him personally, but he knew of Malle's work. Malle had seen one of Guare's recent plays with the Public Theater, and he liked it so much that he decided to ask if Guare wanted to do a movie with him. Guare immediately said yes. Malle then explained that there was a business deal in place to shoot a film in Canada to take advantage of a tax credit - Malle was going to direct and Susan Sarandon (then Malle's girlfriend) would be in it, but unfortunately, plans fell through for what they had in mind. So Malle wanted to meet with Guare to see if he had any ideas for a film. (I know very little about Malle, but FWIW, in the extras for Zazie dans le métro, William Klein described a similar experience where Malle would call him out of the blue, saying he liked his work and asking to meet the next day to discuss a project, again just the two of them, no other third parties getting involved. Simple and the way it ought to be.) Guare was then as now a fixture of Greenwich Village and Malle went there to see him
Apparently the first idea that came to Guare's mind had actually been a friend of his mother's, someone he knew while growing up in Jackson Heights in Queens, and he used to work at the Waldorf. He wasn't exactly the basis for Lou, but essentially his ties to that world in Atlantic City would create the foundation for the film. Guare also thought it could work well with Malle because of his background as a documentarian (he mentioned The Silent World). Malle liked the idea and Guare suggested he meet with his mother's friend - Malle then said he was flying to Paris on Wednesday (it was then Monday) so it would have to be tomorrow. So Guare called up his mother and she basically called her friend, saying "you remember Johnny? He has a friend from France who wants to make a movie with him and wants to meet you, etc." So the next day, Malle, Guare and Guare's mother's friend meet up and he takes them all to Atlantic City to show them around: the locations portrayed in the film and even someone he called Frank Sinatra's mob-connected friend Skinny D'Amato.
Amazingly, there's this recurring theme where as soon as they're introduced to an idea, more things fall into place as if the script wrote itself, which I guess happens when you're THAT good. For example, they go to a casino, and they immediately see an oyster bar when you come in - why is that there? It's explained that new dealers always have to do time (I think three months) working the oyster bar before they're allowed to become dealers at the casino. Malle and Guare immediately go - that's Sarandon's character. Then in the past, Guare came across something like a homemaker's handbook his family had (forgot the title) where they say lemon juice gets rid of fishy smells. He always remembered that, so immediately when they knew Sarandon would be at the oyster bar, he knew that would figure in the film. I think when they went to see D'Amato, they saw something with Al Capone pictured with a boy, and they immediately thought, that's the lead male character there. (Guare had already been told that the financiers would also want a male lead in the film.) FYI since this whole endeavor was sparked by a Canadian tax credit, all the interiors were actually shot in Canada. (Much of the cast would be Canadian as well.) Only the exteriors would be done in Atlantic City.
The schedule for this film is crazy - at the start, Guare was told they had to finish the film (or at least finish shooting) by the end of the year. As it would pan out, they had to set a start date for Halloween or so, and it was already July with no script, not to mention only one cast member. Malle asked Guare if he could write the first draft in TEN days. Guare said sure, no problem, but it sounds like it slowly sank in that it was a tall order.
When Malle was back, Guare met with him, and it sounded like there was still some trepidation. My memory isn't great with this part, but I guess Guare opened the conversation with Malle, and he told Guare he had been reading a particular book that I can't remember because it wasn't familiar to me. Guare said he doesn't believe in God, but what happened was kind of miraculous in its own way because when Malle mentioned that book, Guare pulled out the book he had been reading, which was the same book. At that point, they hugged it out.
Around this time, Malle and Guare went to one of those copy shops that lined St. Mark's back then, and that's when Guare introduced Malle to Wally Shawn (as he's listed in the credits), having invited him along. Malle apparently liked Shawn's face and immediately took to him.
Now that they had a script, they wondered who they should send it to, and Malle suggested Laurence Olivier. Unfortunately due to his health, Olivier would only be able to shoot three hours a day with constant medical supervision. It was deemed too problematic so they moved on to Henry Fonda - Malle was now leaning towards American actors anyway, particularly anyone of a certain stature, but unfortunately Fonda was in ill health as well. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were considered - the former was then deemed too young, the latter was deemed not right. So they reached out to Robert Mitchum - they went to meet him, and he explained to them that he just had a face lift so he was only playing 45-year-olds, not anyone too old. Around then, Burt Lancaster finally came to mind, which seemed ridiculously logical in hindsight given his past roles, but Guare said for whatever reason, they did not think of him until late. He then said, "Lancaster was so vain, he had no vanity." He asked if he should dye his white hair, and they told him no, and whatever they wanted in terms of his appearance, he did not push back.
They also had to cast Grace, and originally they tried Ginger Rogers. He said the script was sent back all crumpled and out of order with a note on it that said "I don't do pornography." Guare knew and had worked with Kate Reid, so she got the part. Michel Piccoli was cast because Malle wanted a friend in there, just someone he knew who could make it easier for him. Piccoli actually did not speak English at that time, so he learned all his lines phonetically. As mentioned, a lot of cast members were Canadian, and that included Robert Joy and Hollis McLaren.
Lancaster actually didn't get along with Malle, which was disappointing to hear. Apparently, he usually antagonizes someone in the production, and I guess this time, Malle was it. Malle kept telling him to tone it down as Lancaster would do things big, and Lancaster said to the crew, "okay, I'll do it the way the frog wants me to do it, and then I'll do it the way it SHOULD be done and we'll see etc etc." (Lancaster was nice to Guare though because he liked writers, and he told Guare he was the first writer he had ever seen present on-set in a very long time.) When Lancaster eventually went to rushes, he saw the results of what Malle was asking for and approved, and from that point on he went easier on him.
When the film was shown, quite a few people with some kind of relationship to the film hated it. The casino owners and locals hated the way Atlantic City was portrayed. Robert Goulet was supposedly angry with the film afterwards because "they were making fun of him." (FWIW, when he did The Simpsons years later, the producers told Goulet that he was an incredibly good sport about doing a role that poked fun at him, and he supposedly was happy to do it. But you can see how it's a different case if you've seen both roles.) When the film went on to win prizes at various festivals, even Paramount (who acquired it) hated the movie because it was winning the prizes and critics' awards they thought Reds and Warren Beatty was going to win, a film they had staked millions on. And Guare's mother and her friend were very disappointed, telling him, "why couldn't you do something like Star Wars?" So Guare never really got close to his mother's friend after that.
Despite the film's success, Guare didn't write very many films afterwards. He did write one on Abscam which was supposed to star Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi - when Belushi died, the project never recovered and never got off the ground.
He was going to do another film with Louis Malle, but that's when Malle became ill. Pedro Almodóvar agreed to step in, but apparently Billy Wilder convinced him to drop out after telling him that he shouldn't make an English-language film until he became more fluent and familiar with it.
I feel like I'm missing some Lancaster stories, but there was one bizarre one - he was at their place and they had some pizzas that caught fire in the kitchen. Guare's wife (who plays the woman in the flower shop) yelled out to Lancaster "there's a fire in the kitchen!" Lancaster went in there and said, "yes there is," then he walked through the smoke, out of their apartment, and they never saw him again.
Guare got a call from Malle sometime in July of 1979. He didn't know him personally, but he knew of Malle's work. Malle had seen one of Guare's recent plays with the Public Theater, and he liked it so much that he decided to ask if Guare wanted to do a movie with him. Guare immediately said yes. Malle then explained that there was a business deal in place to shoot a film in Canada to take advantage of a tax credit - Malle was going to direct and Susan Sarandon (then Malle's girlfriend) would be in it, but unfortunately, plans fell through for what they had in mind. So Malle wanted to meet with Guare to see if he had any ideas for a film. (I know very little about Malle, but FWIW, in the extras for Zazie dans le métro, William Klein described a similar experience where Malle would call him out of the blue, saying he liked his work and asking to meet the next day to discuss a project, again just the two of them, no other third parties getting involved. Simple and the way it ought to be.) Guare was then as now a fixture of Greenwich Village and Malle went there to see him
Apparently the first idea that came to Guare's mind had actually been a friend of his mother's, someone he knew while growing up in Jackson Heights in Queens, and he used to work at the Waldorf. He wasn't exactly the basis for Lou, but essentially his ties to that world in Atlantic City would create the foundation for the film. Guare also thought it could work well with Malle because of his background as a documentarian (he mentioned The Silent World). Malle liked the idea and Guare suggested he meet with his mother's friend - Malle then said he was flying to Paris on Wednesday (it was then Monday) so it would have to be tomorrow. So Guare called up his mother and she basically called her friend, saying "you remember Johnny? He has a friend from France who wants to make a movie with him and wants to meet you, etc." So the next day, Malle, Guare and Guare's mother's friend meet up and he takes them all to Atlantic City to show them around: the locations portrayed in the film and even someone he called Frank Sinatra's mob-connected friend Skinny D'Amato.
Amazingly, there's this recurring theme where as soon as they're introduced to an idea, more things fall into place as if the script wrote itself, which I guess happens when you're THAT good. For example, they go to a casino, and they immediately see an oyster bar when you come in - why is that there? It's explained that new dealers always have to do time (I think three months) working the oyster bar before they're allowed to become dealers at the casino. Malle and Guare immediately go - that's Sarandon's character. Then in the past, Guare came across something like a homemaker's handbook his family had (forgot the title) where they say lemon juice gets rid of fishy smells. He always remembered that, so immediately when they knew Sarandon would be at the oyster bar, he knew that would figure in the film. I think when they went to see D'Amato, they saw something with Al Capone pictured with a boy, and they immediately thought, that's the lead male character there. (Guare had already been told that the financiers would also want a male lead in the film.) FYI since this whole endeavor was sparked by a Canadian tax credit, all the interiors were actually shot in Canada. (Much of the cast would be Canadian as well.) Only the exteriors would be done in Atlantic City.
The schedule for this film is crazy - at the start, Guare was told they had to finish the film (or at least finish shooting) by the end of the year. As it would pan out, they had to set a start date for Halloween or so, and it was already July with no script, not to mention only one cast member. Malle asked Guare if he could write the first draft in TEN days. Guare said sure, no problem, but it sounds like it slowly sank in that it was a tall order.
When Malle was back, Guare met with him, and it sounded like there was still some trepidation. My memory isn't great with this part, but I guess Guare opened the conversation with Malle, and he told Guare he had been reading a particular book that I can't remember because it wasn't familiar to me. Guare said he doesn't believe in God, but what happened was kind of miraculous in its own way because when Malle mentioned that book, Guare pulled out the book he had been reading, which was the same book. At that point, they hugged it out.
Around this time, Malle and Guare went to one of those copy shops that lined St. Mark's back then, and that's when Guare introduced Malle to Wally Shawn (as he's listed in the credits), having invited him along. Malle apparently liked Shawn's face and immediately took to him.
Now that they had a script, they wondered who they should send it to, and Malle suggested Laurence Olivier. Unfortunately due to his health, Olivier would only be able to shoot three hours a day with constant medical supervision. It was deemed too problematic so they moved on to Henry Fonda - Malle was now leaning towards American actors anyway, particularly anyone of a certain stature, but unfortunately Fonda was in ill health as well. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were considered - the former was then deemed too young, the latter was deemed not right. So they reached out to Robert Mitchum - they went to meet him, and he explained to them that he just had a face lift so he was only playing 45-year-olds, not anyone too old. Around then, Burt Lancaster finally came to mind, which seemed ridiculously logical in hindsight given his past roles, but Guare said for whatever reason, they did not think of him until late. He then said, "Lancaster was so vain, he had no vanity." He asked if he should dye his white hair, and they told him no, and whatever they wanted in terms of his appearance, he did not push back.
They also had to cast Grace, and originally they tried Ginger Rogers. He said the script was sent back all crumpled and out of order with a note on it that said "I don't do pornography." Guare knew and had worked with Kate Reid, so she got the part. Michel Piccoli was cast because Malle wanted a friend in there, just someone he knew who could make it easier for him. Piccoli actually did not speak English at that time, so he learned all his lines phonetically. As mentioned, a lot of cast members were Canadian, and that included Robert Joy and Hollis McLaren.
Lancaster actually didn't get along with Malle, which was disappointing to hear. Apparently, he usually antagonizes someone in the production, and I guess this time, Malle was it. Malle kept telling him to tone it down as Lancaster would do things big, and Lancaster said to the crew, "okay, I'll do it the way the frog wants me to do it, and then I'll do it the way it SHOULD be done and we'll see etc etc." (Lancaster was nice to Guare though because he liked writers, and he told Guare he was the first writer he had ever seen present on-set in a very long time.) When Lancaster eventually went to rushes, he saw the results of what Malle was asking for and approved, and from that point on he went easier on him.
When the film was shown, quite a few people with some kind of relationship to the film hated it. The casino owners and locals hated the way Atlantic City was portrayed. Robert Goulet was supposedly angry with the film afterwards because "they were making fun of him." (FWIW, when he did The Simpsons years later, the producers told Goulet that he was an incredibly good sport about doing a role that poked fun at him, and he supposedly was happy to do it. But you can see how it's a different case if you've seen both roles.) When the film went on to win prizes at various festivals, even Paramount (who acquired it) hated the movie because it was winning the prizes and critics' awards they thought Reds and Warren Beatty was going to win, a film they had staked millions on. And Guare's mother and her friend were very disappointed, telling him, "why couldn't you do something like Star Wars?" So Guare never really got close to his mother's friend after that.
Despite the film's success, Guare didn't write very many films afterwards. He did write one on Abscam which was supposed to star Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi - when Belushi died, the project never recovered and never got off the ground.
He was going to do another film with Louis Malle, but that's when Malle became ill. Pedro Almodóvar agreed to step in, but apparently Billy Wilder convinced him to drop out after telling him that he shouldn't make an English-language film until he became more fluent and familiar with it.
I feel like I'm missing some Lancaster stories, but there was one bizarre one - he was at their place and they had some pizzas that caught fire in the kitchen. Guare's wife (who plays the woman in the flower shop) yelled out to Lancaster "there's a fire in the kitchen!" Lancaster went in there and said, "yes there is," then he walked through the smoke, out of their apartment, and they never saw him again.
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beamish14
- Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm
Re: Louis Malle
Those are some great recollections. Regarding Olivier and his health, I don’t know how the hell he was able to do Inchon at that time, although that was so lax with the money being pissed away that perhaps the financiers just didn’t care
Lancaster was truly the bright gem among actors of his generation in terms of the incredible array and quality of the projects that he signed on for until his last decade. I was at a talk given by the producer of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which he had originally developed (and even wrote a screenplay for) and intended to star in, and he described a lot of his unique quirks as well
Lancaster was truly the bright gem among actors of his generation in terms of the incredible array and quality of the projects that he signed on for until his last decade. I was at a talk given by the producer of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which he had originally developed (and even wrote a screenplay for) and intended to star in, and he described a lot of his unique quirks as well
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DeprongMori
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
- Location: San Francisco
Re: Louis Malle
Beamish14, could you unpack “he” in the last sentence? Based on the first sentence I am reading that as “Lancaster had originally developed … and intended to star in”, and “the producer described a lot of Lancaster’s unique quirks”. Is that correct? Very interesting anecdote!beamish14 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:43 pmThose are some great recollections. Regarding Olivier and his health, I don’t know how the hell he was able to do Inchon at that time, although that was so lax with the money being pissed away that perhaps the financiers just didn’t care
Lancaster was truly the bright gem among actors of his generation in terms of the incredible array and quality of the projects that he signed on for until his last decade. I was at a talk given by the producer of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which he had originally developed (and even wrote a screenplay for) and intended to star in, and he described a lot of his unique quirks as well
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hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Louis Malle
Thanks for that remembrance, because I just remembered a huge detail I forgot - Guare said Lancaster called him up (forgot when exactly) and said he had just seen a play (or possibly a film) he wanted to make into a movie that would star himself. That turned out to be La Cage aux Folles - I want to say Lancaster saw a theatrical production, but I'm not 100% sure and the French film adaptation would've been well-known by the time Lancaster got to know Guare. Anyway, Lancaster went over to Guare's and apparently acted out the part, and Guare said it was quite something to see Burt Lancaster act the part of a drag queen - a wonderful performance that sadly no one else will ever see.beamish14 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:43 pmThose are some great recollections. Regarding Olivier and his health, I don’t know how the hell he was able to do Inchon at that time, although that was so lax with the money being pissed away that perhaps the financiers just didn’t care
Lancaster was truly the bright gem among actors of his generation in terms of the incredible array and quality of the projects that he signed on for until his last decade. I was at a talk given by the producer of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which he had originally developed (and even wrote a screenplay for) and intended to star in, and he described a lot of his unique quirks as well