French Directors - Louis Malle

  Note: All payments on movie orders will be processed at the time of shipment. Most films are special orders, so they will take longer to ship than other products.

Welcome to our foreign films page, featuring foreign movies in video and DVD format in languages from a host of countries. Note: unless stated otherwise, all videocassettes are in VHS and NTSC format, and all DVDs are for players that support Region 1 encoding (United States and Canada) and are in NTSC format. Check our DVD Compatibility FAQ for more information about region encoding, television formats, and other specifications. If you can't find what you need, please email us.

Special offer: every time you buy three videos, get one free! Just include the promo code MBVideo3plus1 while ordering four videos, and we'll give you the lowest-priced video free.

French Directors - Louis Malle

3 Films by Louis Malle Murmur of the Heart / Lacombe, Lucien / Au Revoir les Enfants Louis Malle Three semi-autobiographical coming-of-age films by Louis Malle, a director who emerged from the French New Wave and went on to amass a filmography of staggering breadth, depth, and feeling. Includes Murmur of the Heart (1971, 118 mins.), an affectionate and controversial portrait of a 14-year-old from a bourgeois home who develops complicated feelings for his mother. Lacombe, Lucien (1974, 138 mins.) is a brilliant, poetic work that tells of a French peasant, rejected by the French resistance, who joins the Gestapo instead. Malle's devastating depiction of the amorality of power inflamed French audiences. Finally, Au Revoir les Enfants (1987, 101 mins.) tells the heartrending story of a friendship between two schoolboys, one Jewish and the other Catholic, during the Nazi occupation of France. This Criterion Collection edition is a 4-DVD set, and includes interviews with Louis Malle widow Candice Bergen and biographer Pierre Billard, excerpts from a French TV program featuring Malle, audio interviews with Malle from 1972, 1980, and 1988, The Immigrant (1917, 20 mins.): the Charlie Chaplin short featured in Au Revoir les Engants, character profile featurette, Malle filmography, essays by Michael Sragow, Pauline Kael, and Philip Kemp, and more. France, 1971-1987, 357 mins. DVD | $99

Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle Vive Le Tour / Humain, Trop Humain / Place de la Republique / Phantom India / Calcutta / God's Country / And the Pursuit of Happiness Louis Malle Malle will forever be associated with directing nouvelle vague cornerstones like Elevator to the Gallows and stateside gems like Pretty Baby. Speaking to his great range, this anthology explores his lesser known but no less accomplished work in nonfiction filmmaking. It's composed of Vive Le Tour (1962, 18 mins.), an exciting ode to the Tour de France; Humain, Trop Humain (1974, 75 mins.), an inside look at a French auto plant; Place de la Republique (1974, 94 mins.), which vividly focuses on one Parisian street corner; Phantom India (1969, 378 mins.), a gorgeous French TV miniseries in which Malle strives to break-down the complexities of life in this eastern land; Calcutta (1969, 105 mins.), an unforgettable feature cut from his footage of India's great city; God's Country (1986, 90 mins.), a brilliant PBS program involving one Minnesota farming community and its economic decline during the Reagan era; And the Pursuit of Happiness (1986, 80 mins.), Malle's broad study of the immigrant experiences in the U.S. In French with English subtitles. This is a Criterion Collection 6-DVD set. France/USA, 1962-1986, 818 mins. DVD | $99

Atlantic City Louis Malle Burt Lancaster delivers a stunning performance as the seemingly washed-up gangster, with Susan Sarandon as his lost-soul companion. A moving portrait of American dreams, contained in the small-world milieu of the slums and the gambling palaces of Atlantic City. Based on the screenplay by John Guare. Lancaster earned Best Actor honors from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, and BAFTA, among many other accolades. Canada/USA/France, 1980, 103 mins. DVD | $37.95

Calcutta Louis Malle Louis Malle transforms this recording of his trip through India's great city from a simple travelogue into an intense examination of the minute details that make up the lives of those he encounters. An awesome tapestry emerges, one that joins such disparate strands as Moslems and Hindus, or the protests of a former government official and the building of a skyscraper without modern equipment. English narration. France 1976 99 mins. DVD | $44.95

Damage Louis Malle French director Louis Malle's adaptation of Josephine Hart's novel about an upper class Parliament member (Jeremy Irons) who has an affair with an ethereal French woman (Juliette Binoche) who is about to be married to Irons' son (Rupert Graves). Miranda Richardson co-stars as Irons' long-suffering wife. This unrated version contains the excised material the MPAA found objectionable enough to warrant an NC-17 rating. Great Britain/USA, 1992, 111 mins. DVD | $44.95

Elevator to the Gallows Louis Malle A Hitchcock-like romantic thriller from director Louis Malle (Atlantic City, Au Revoir les Enfants) which features a terrific early performance by French superstar Jeanne Moreau as a woman waiting for her lover to return from committing the "perfect crime." Malle sets old Hollywood film noir formulas to new rhythms in what is one of the first films of the French New Wave. Original jazz score by the late great Miles Davis. Criterion Collection Edition. Letterboxed. Includes new and archival interviews with director Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet, and soundtrack session pianist Rene Urtreger, footage of Miles Davis improvising the score, new video discussion about the score with jazz critic Gary Giddins and musician Jon Faddis, trailers, and essays by critic Terrence Rafferty and producer Vincent Malle. In French with English subtitles. France, 1958, 92 mins. DVD | $59.95

The Fire Within Louis Malle Louis Malle's painful and devastating portrait of dissolution and self-destruction, capturing the final two days of a wealthy French writer visiting his friends, following his release from a mental asylum. Brilliantly scored by Erik Satie, the film has a harsh, bleak beauty and despair. With Maurice Ronet, Lena Skerla, Yvonne Clech and Hubert Deschamps. French with English subtitles. France, 1963, 108 mins. Videocassette | $44.95

Lacombe, Lucien Louis Malle This brilliant film by Louis Malle is set during Germany's occupation of France and follows a young French peasant, rejected by the French resistance, who joins the Gestapo instead. His opportunistic role as a collaborator is threatened when he falls in love with a young Jewish girl. The unflattering portrayal of the resistance and the devastating depiction of the amorality of power resulted in a severely negative reaction to the film in France, motivating Malle's move to America. "Malle's film is a long, close look at the banality of evil; it is--not incidentally--one of the least banal movies ever made" (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker). Criterion Collection Edition. Letterboxed. Includes trailer and essay by film critic Michael Sragow. In French with English subtitles. France, 1974, 138 mins. DVD | $44.95

The Lovers Louis Malle A landmark of both French cinema and screen eroticism, The Lovers stars Jeanne Moreau as a stylish provincial wife whose shallow life changes when she meets an unpretentious young man. The film caused a furor of protest when it was first released; today its tender sensuality and genuine feeling for passion are a welcome relief. Henri Decae's magical photography and Brahm's Second Quartet create an atmosphere of luminous romanticism. This Criterion Collection edition is a newly restored high-def digital transfer of the complete, uncensored version. Includes a selection of archival interviews with Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and Jose Luis de Villalonga, and writer Louise de Vilmorin, a gallery of promotional materials from the U.S. theatrical release, new and improved English subtitles, and a new essay by film historian Ginette Vincendeau. In French with optional English subtitles. France, 1958, 90 mins. DVD | $44.95

Murmur of the Heart Louis Malle Louis Malle directed this affectionate story of a young man's coming of age. When a 14-year-old boy from a bourgeois home is sent to a sanitarium for his health, he learns that mother knows best. A comic and, at the time, quite scandalous motion picture. With Benoit Ferreux as the rambunctious kid and Lea Massari as his sensuous mom. Also Daniel Gelin, Marc Winocourt and Michel Lonsdale. Watch for the dinner tennis match. Criterion Collection Edition. Letterboxed. Includes trailer and essay by film critic Michael Sragow. In French with English subtitles. France/Germany/Italy, 1971, 118 mins. DVD | $44.95

Pretty Baby Louis Malle Director Malle has taken a taboo subject, child prostitution, and created a film of humanity and beauty. Brooke Shields plays a young girl in 1917 New Orleans; Keith Carradine is a photographer obsessed with the red light district bewitched by Shields. With Susan Sarandon. USA, 1978, 109 mins. DVD | $37.95

Viva Maria Louis Malle Louis Malle's bawdy, irreverent work about two beautiful entertainers and anarchists (Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot) who become entangled in the Mexican revolution. With George Hamilton, Gregor Von Rezzori and Paulette Dubost. The DVD is closed-captioned, and includes optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. French with English subtitles. France/Italy, 1965, 119 mins. DVD | $37.95