Michel Deville (born 13 April 1931) is a French

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. Deville started his filmmaking career in the late 1950s, paralleling the emergence of the

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

directors. He never achieved the level of critical and international recognition of some of his contemporaries such as

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

and

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

, possibly because of his more conventional filmmaking style. Nevertheless, his films, especially his comedies from the 1970s and 1980s, were popular in his native France. One of Deville's comedies, '' La Lectrice'' (''The Reader'') was probably his biggest success with international audiences. ''La Lectrice'' is about a woman (played by

Miou-Miou Sylvette Herry (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Miou-Miou (), is a French actress. A ten-time César Award nominee, she won the César Award for Best Actress for the 1979 film ''Memoirs of a French Whore''. Her other films incl ...

), who finds work reading novels for the blind but gradually finds herself unwittingly attracting a clientele of fetishists who enjoyed being read to. At one time his films were difficult to find in North America but presently (2007) seven of his films are available in DVD in the U.S. His 1980 film ''

Le Voyage en douce ''Le Voyage en douce'' is a 1980 French drama film directed by Michel Deville. The screenplay is shaped around 15 different sexual anecdotes, penned by 15 writers. The film stars Dominique Sanda and Geraldine Chaplin. It was entered into the 30t ...

'' was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. Five years later, his film ''

Death in a French Garden '' Death in a French Garden '' (french: Péril en la demeure) is a 1985 French drama film directed by Michel Deville. It was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival. Plot David Aurphet, a struggling guitar teacher, is invited ...

'' was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival. A clip from his 1968 film Benjamin is included in Robert Bresson’s Une Femme Douce (1969).

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deville, Michel 1931 births Living people French film directors French male screenwriters French screenwriters People from Boulogne-Billancourt Best Director César Award winners