The Silence of the Sea – Jean Pierre Melville
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The 10 greatest films of Jean Pierre Melville
“La Silence de la Mer” (1949)
This debut feature is a distant relative to the atmospheric crime films that would ultimately carve his name among the greats, yet even so, “La Silence de la Mer” is vital in any conversation about Melville. It’s a film that relies so heavily on narration, and is so spatially limited (taking place mostly in a single living room), that it should revokes its right to be cinematic but ends up being so regardless.
The Complete Melville at Criterion
Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach
20 October 1917
“Léon Morin, Priest” in English — was Melville’s sixth feature and almost the exact midpoint between early successes like “Bob le Flambeur” (1956), about a gentleman thief organizing the heist of a lifetime, and “Army of Shadows” (1969), his late-career masterpiece about the Resistance. Given his interest in the war, it’s understandable that he was drawn to “Léon Morin” and its story of life during the occupation.
Le Samurai 