(1931- )
Director, producer, and screenwriter. Michel Deville was born in Boulogne-sur-Seine. He got his start in cinema as an assistant to director Henri Decoin in the early 1950s before codirecting his first film, the crime drama Une balle dans le canon (1958) with Charles Gérard. His first independently directed feature was Ce soir ou jamais (1961), starring Anna Karina and co-written with Nina Companeez. Deville would collaborate with Companeez on the scripts of several comedies, including Adorable menteuse (1962), L'Appartement des filles (1963), A cause, à cause d'une femme (1963), Lucky Jo (1964), On a volé la Jaconde (1965), Martin Soldat (1966), Benjamin ou Les Mémoires d'un puceau (1967), and Bye bye, Barbara (1969). Karina starred again in Tendres Requins (1967), another film he cowrote with Companeez. Many of Deville's films were commercially successful. His Benjamin was also critically successful, winning the prestigious Prix Louis-Delluc.
Deville has some connection to French Nouvelle Vague or New Wave directors, of whom he is a contemporary. He often worked, for example, with prominent New Wave actresses such as Karina and Brigitte Bardot. The latter starred in his comedy L 'Ours et la poupée (1970), a film emblematic of Deville's interest in sexual politics. However, Deville departed from the New Wave in his use of more traditional photography and his emphasis on creating entertaining films. While directors such as Jacques Deray profited from the use of male superstars, Deville is noted for his work with several major actresses. In the 1970s he cast Françoise Fabian and Brigitte Fossey in Raphaël ou le débâché (1971) and the legendary Romy Schneider in Le mouton enragé (1974) alongside British star Jane Birkin. He also collaborated with important French actors such as Michel Piccoli and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Aside from his selection of fine actresses, Deville is known as a talented scenarist. In 1979 he won a César for Best Writing with Gilles Perrault for Le Dossier 51. The film also received the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for Best Film. Perrault later scripted Deville's La petite bande (1983).
In the 1980s, Deville's work continued to be critically lauded as well as popular. Much of what is appreciated in his films is his tendency to utilize postmodern techniques, particularly with respect to the blending of different art forms into his films, and for his play with genre. He won a César for Best Director and a second French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for Best Film for Péril en la demeure (1985), another detective thriller with decidedly postmodern traits. His La Lectrice (1988), which stars Miou-Miou, also plays with genre and blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality. It won the Prix Louis-Delluc and the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival. Rosalinde Deville collaborated on the scripts for both films and continued this collaboration with Deville into the 1990s and beyond. Both Le Voyage en douce (1980) and Péril en la demeure were also nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear.
No doubt because of his popular and critical standing, Deville has still been able to work with some of the best actors and directors in France. He cast Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert in Eaux profondes (1981), and his film Le Paltoquet (1986) features Fanny Ardant, Daniel Auteuil, Richard Bohringer, and Jeanne Moreau. His recent collaborations with French directors include Contre l'oubli (1991), a film about political prisoners initiated by Amnesty International. He has also cooperated with emerging French actors such as Jean-Hughes Anglade in Nuit d'été en ville (1990) and Élodie Bouchez in La Divine poursuite (1997). His Toutes peines confondues (1992) features celebrity singers Patrick Bruel and Jacques Dutronc. In the 1990s, Deville received further acclaim. His film La Maladie de Sachs (1999) received yet another French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for Best Film. It was also nominated for a César for Best Director. Deville subsequently directed Un monde presque paisible (2002) and Un fil à la patte (2005), a film starring Emmanuel Béart and Charles Berling.
Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.