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Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris

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Ginette Vincendeau's study of Jean-Pierre Melville, subtitled An American in Paris, is a superb addition to anyone's library of works on film directors and is a perfect complement to the now sadly unavailable set of interviews by Rui Nogueira, Melville on Melville.

The subtitle is a nice touch. Melville was, for his time, a radical filmmaker who embraced American film noir and, for that matter, American film in general. His influence can easily be perceived in the work of many other directors, both contemporary with his time, and later, including, among others, Truffaut, Tarantino, and John Woo. Indeed, Tarantino and Woo are mentioned here, as is Truffaut and Godard. Melville's famous falling out with the latter is highlighted--this followed a period in which Godard professed admiration for Melville. The turnabout is of some real interest.

As this is a current book, Vincendeau naturally did not have the opportunity to speak to Melville directly, as did Nogueira. But she does much with what is known of Melville and offers insights into his character that Nogueira did not. Her dissection of his films is truly first-rate; she analyzes both the films, objectively, and Melville's personal involvement in each of them. Her discussion of the director's perspective on society--what makes it tough, what makes it bearable, what gives it meaning--dovetails nicely with her observations on his work as a filmmaker.

One of the great things about buying the Criterion DVD release of Le Cercle Rouge is that it includes an excerpt from the Nogueira book in which Melville himself talks about that film. The Vincendeau book is indispensable for those who want a penetrating examination of one of the greatest of all French filmmakers.

Highly recommended.

A long time Melville fan, I was thrilled to find a study on his work printed in my native English. In the United States many of Melville's films are simply unavailable with English subtitles in either VHS or DVD. I really appreciated being able to access details of these unseen master works through this book. The organization of his work into genres was well thought out. Enjoyable are the tidbits of backstory before, during and after production of each film. Like any passionate artist much of who the man was can be found expressed in his work. This book lovingly invites the reader to seek out and experience these wonderful films. I also found helpful references to other French films I hadn't discovered. I hope and pray Criterion releases more of Melville's work on DVD

Aspects of French Cinema (2 vols)
Stars and stardom in French cinema (Continuum 2000) and
Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris (bfi 2003)

The author is a French film academic in England, her work - of which here two samples - on Nouvelle Vague and wider themes. She is very knowledgeable, and her writing comes along equally competently in French and in English. Miss Vincendeau's book on Melville (1917-73), the major of the two, is also published by Macmillan in the United States; she also does features in the Melville editions on dvd, Her work on Melville is considered a pivotal contribution, dealing with Melvile as a great talent in film making, and in connecting the time before with that of the Nouvelle Vague in French Cinema.

Melville became well known for his tragic, minimalist film noir crime dramas, such as Le Doulos (1962), Le Samouraï (1967) and Le Cercle rouge (1969), starring major actors such as Alain Delon (probably the definitive Melvillian actor), Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura. Influenced by American cinema, especially gangster films of the 1930s and '40s, Melville used accessories such as weapons, clothes (the indispensible unisex trench coat), and fedora hats, to shape a characteristic look in his movies. (Wikipedia)

On stars and stardom in France, we now at least have an intelligently reasoned list: Max Lindner, Jean Gabin, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Louis de Funès, Jean-Pierre Belmondo, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Dépardieu and Juliette Binoche. As in her Melville study, Miss Vincendeau uses the anaytical style typical of French critics, which makes such studies so much superior to the more (often endlessly) narrative detail of the English and primarily American film press.