Code Name Melville
Director Olivier Bohler
Countries
Duration 76 min
Synopsis
Combining interviews of filmmakers, actors, friends and relative of Jean-Pierre Melville, with rare archival footage and film extracts, Code Name: Melville shows how the director works were impacted by his experience during World War II. Indeed, Melville spent a total of eight years of his life (1937-1945) in the French army and then, having escaped through the South of France to Spain, in the Free French Forces. Significantly, his first feature film was the adaptation of one of the most prestigious novels written during about the French resistance, The Silence of the Sea. Resisting the structures of the film industry, his own original approach to filmmaking was that of a highly independent man. This attitude earned him the reputation of being the precursor of the French New Wave.
Combining interviews of filmmakers, actors, friends and relative of Jean-Pierre Melville, with rare archival footage and film extracts, Code Name: Melville shows how the director works were impacted by his experience during World War II. Indeed, Melville spent a total of eight years of his life (1937-1945) in the French army and then, having escaped through the South of France to Spain, in the Free French Forces. Significantly, his first feature film was the adaptation of one of the most prestigious novels written during about the French resistance, The Silence of the Sea. Resisting the structures of the film industry, his own original approach to filmmaking was that of a highly independent man. This attitude earned him the reputation of being the precursor of the French New Wave.