Jean-Pierre Melville was a seminal French director, active between 1949 and 1972, most famous for iconic crime films like Le Samouraï. He essentially took elements from Hollywood gangster movies ...

Jean-Pierre Melville, one of the great odd men out of the French cinema, was a defiantly personal filmmaker who loved Hollywood movies, classical music and literature. Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, he… ...

In French with subtitles. 88 min. — Dave Kehr Bob le Flambeur This light, breezy 1955 heist film is probably the least characteristic movie Melville ever made.

Melville passed away at the height of his powers, with his last film being another hit in Un Flic. Melville's filmography is the best of French noir and can rival anything produced by Hollywood.

Melville made three other full-length features apart from the films we’ve covered; 1953’s little-seen and almost entirely forgotten “ When You Read This Letter,” 1959’s somewhat stodgy ...

Melville produced a spartan 14 films -- nearly all fine cut gems. Six will be exhibited during the MFA’s "Jean-Pierre Melville Centennial," curated by Rialto Pictures, from Friday, Dec. 1 ...

Critic’s Notebook: Sharper Than Ever, French Crime Classic ‘Le Samouraï’ Might Be the Coolest Film Ever Made Jean-Pierre Melville's sleek French noir set the template for everyone from ...

Perhaps the most unusual of Melville’s moral tales is 1961’s “Léon Morin, Priest,” starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, the hottest actor in France after 1960’s “Breathless,” as a confident ...

Jean-Pierre Melville’s Cinema of Resistance His films are illuminated by what he saw when France was ruled by oppression and ordinary people had to decide what, or whom, they would obey.