Louis Malle's Biography

French film director Louis Malle was born in Thumieres in France on 30 October 1932.

In 1940, when the Occupation began the Malle family moved to Paris where Louis and his brothers were educated by Jesuits at first and then went to a boarding school run by Carmelites in Fountainebleau.

Louis Malle studied humanities at Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques. At the end of his first year he was recruited by Jacques Cousteau and spent time aboard the Calypso. They won an award for the underwater documentary Le Monde du Silence (1956).

Louis Malle's debut film was the excellent Ascenseur pour l'echafaud. He went on to make a variety of top class movies including the film version of Raymond Queneau's Zazie dans le Metro (1960) and Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987).

Louis Malle's first marriage was to Anne-Marie Deschodt, but they broke up three years later. His first child, whose mother was actress Gila von Weitershausen, was born in Mexico in 1971. Malle's second child's mother was actress Alexandra Stewart.

Louis Malle married another actress Candice Bergen in 1980, and they had his third child in 1985.

Louis Malle died in 1995.

In the book, Malle on Malle, Louis Malle said:

"Hiroshima Mon Amour, Les Quatre cent coups, Les Amants were tremendously important events. These days, because of television and the incredible saturation of images, I'm not sure this would happen any more. Cinema has become - I don't want to say obsolete, but somewhat marginal. We live in a culture of the disposable. A film can be an event, be huge at the box office, win all kinds of awards, and then in a couple of years be pretty much forgotten. Anyway we film-makers don't work for posterity. We create with celluloid and chemical pigments that don't last very long. They fade away. In 200 years there will be nothing left of our work but dust."