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Arguably a pioneer of the French New Wave (with Ascenseur pour l´échafaud, 1957) Louis Malle went on to enjoy an acclaimed yet provocative and versatile transatlantic career. This collection of original essays proposes to reassess this richly eclectic and boldly subversive oeuvre and redress the surprising critical neglect it has suffered over the years. It does so through a combination of transversal and monographic analyses that use a variety of critical lenses and theoretical tools in order to examine Malle´s documentaries as well as his fiction features? illuminate the profound, lasting dialogue his films entertained with literature and theater, bring to the fore their sustained, albeit often oblique autobiographical thrust along with their scathing sociopolitical critique, and scrutinize the alternating use of stars and non-professional actors.

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Philippe Met is professor of French and cinema studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored and edited several books on literature or film, and is the coeditor of Screening the Paris Suburbs: From the Silent Era to the 1990s (2017).

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