MELVILLE, JEAN-PIERRE

born Oct. 20, 1917, Paris died Aug. 2, 1973, Paris pseudonym of Jean-pierre Grumbach French motion-picture director whose early films strongly influenced the directors of the New Wave, the innovative French film movement of the late 1950s. Grumbach's enthusiasm for American culture prompted him to change his name to that of his favourite writer, Herman Melville. He served in the Free French forces during World War II, founded his own film production company in 1946, and built his own studio in 1949. Melville's early films, such as Le Silence de la mer (1947; The Silence of the Sea), were made on small budgets and used character actors instead of established stars. His other early films were Les Enfants terribles (1948; The Little Terrors), a brilliant screen adaptation of the novel by Jean Cocteau; Bob le flambeur (1955), his first gangster film; and Deux hommes Manhattan (1958; Two Men in Manhattan). Melville's use of location shooting, natural lighting, and improvisational acting in these films strongly influenced such later directors as Claude Chabrol, Franois Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard. The stylized decor of Melville's later, more commercial works is strongly reminiscent of the Hollywood products of the 1930s. Lon Morin, prtre (1961; Leon Morin, Priest) was his first major commercial production. It was followed by a series of highly stylized, Hollywood-inspired gangster films: Le Doulos (1962; DoulosThe Finger Man), Le Deuxime Souffle (1966; Second Wind), and Le Samourai (1967; The Samurai).