- Code Name Melville
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Code Name Melville 
Opening title creditDirected by Olivier Bohler Produced by Raphaël Millet
Nocturnes ProductionsWritten by Olivier Bohler Starring Jean-Pierre Melville (archival footage)
Johnnie To
Masahiro Kobayashi
Bertrand Tavernier
Philippe Labro
Volker Schlöndorff
André S. Labarthe (interviews)Music by Jessica Lalanne Cinematography Julien Selleron Editing by Nicolas Dupouy Distributed by StudioCanal (video) Release date(s) November 15, 2008
Premiere at the Golden Horse Film Festival
Running time 76 minutes Country 
Language French Code Name Melville (original French title: Sous le nom de Melville) is a feature length documentary about Jean-Pierre Melville, directed by Olivier Bohler and produced by Raphaël Millet for Nocturnes Productions in 2008.[1] Its world premiere took place in November 2008 at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei (Taiwan). It has been shown on French channel CinéCinéma Classic in March–April 2010, and on Belgian channel La Deux (RTBF) in May 2010.[2] It is the first feature documentary about Jean-Pierre Melville since he died in 1973.
Contents
Synopsis
Jean-Pierre Melville, born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, was of Alsatian Jewish descent. Having to flee Nazi-occupied France during World War II, he joined the French Resistance and took the pseudonym Melville, in tribute to American novelist Herman Melville. He subsequently retained his war name as his stage name, once the war was over. This personal experience of the war and in particular of resistance fighting impacted Melville's formative year and has an influence which can be seen in his films.
Production
Code Name Melville is a co-production between Nocturnes Productions and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA, the French National Institute for Audiovisual).
It has been funded by the National Center of Cinematography and the moving image,[3] the Regional Fund of Franche-Comté [4] and the Regional Fund of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, with the support of the French Ministry of Defence, Ciné Cinéma, RTBF and StudioCanal.
Cast
- Michel Dreyfus-Schmidt
- Leo Fortel
- Pierre Grasset
- Laurent Grousset
- Rémy Grumbach
- Masahiro Kobayashi
- André S. Labarthe
- Philippe Labro
- Jean-Pierre Melville (archival footage)
- Jean-Jacques Nataf
- Rui Nogueira
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Johnnie To
Festival screenings
- Golden Horse Film Festival, Taipei, November 2008.
- Torino Film Festival, November 2008.
- Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, 24 January 2009 (in competition for the Mitrani Award).[5]
- Festival international du film policier de Beaune, 9 April 2009 [1].[6]
- Sotto le Stelle del Cinema, Bologne, 27 July 2009.[7]
- Cambridge Film Festival, 19 & 25 September 2009.[8]
- CineCity - Brighton Film Festival, 24 November 2009.[9]
- Documentary Month in Franche-Comté, 2009.[10]
- Amiens International Film Festival, 19 novembre 2009.[11]
- Tokyo's Franco-Japanese Institute, in conjunction with Tokyo FilmEx, 12 December 2009.[12]
- French Cultural Center in Beijing, 21 December 2009.[13]
- Angers Premiers Plans Festival, January 2010.[14]
- Screenings as part of the Melville retrospective of the 26th French Film Festival in Singapore on 04 & 9 October 2010.[15][16]
- Screening at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, 8 October 2010.
- Screening at TischAsia (New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Asia), Singapore, 8 October 2010.
- Screening at the Cinémathèque Française (French Cinematheque), Paris, 10 November 2010.[17]
- Screening at the Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, on 25-26–27 February 2011.
References
- ^ Code Name Melville on IMDB
- ^ Programming of Sous le nom de Melville on RTBF's website
- ^ Official website of the CNC
- ^ Official website of the Franche-Comté
- ^ FIPA 2009 website
- ^ Screening at the Festival international du film policier in Beaune
- ^ Page on the official website of the Cineteca di Bologna
- ^ Page on the website of the Cambridge Film Festival
- ^ Listing in CineCity programme online
- ^ CRDP's official programme
- ^ Page in Amiens International Film Festival's official website
- ^ Annonce du film dans le programme officiel de l'Institut franco-japonais de Tokyo
- ^ Listing in Global Times
- ^ Présentation du film sur le site du festival Premiers Plans d'Angers
- ^ Article in LePetitJournal.com
- ^ Review of Code Name Melville on the National Critics Choice website
- ^ Programme officiel de la Cinémathèque française
External links
- Code Name Melville on IMDB
- Extract of the original French version of Sous le nom de Melville on the official website of Centre régional de documentation pédagogique de Franche-Comté
- Film-documentaire.fr
- Director Olivier Bohler on YouTube
- FIPA 2009
- Article in Diario Vasco
- Article in Hitza
- Article in Gipuzkoa
- Listing on CRDP Besançon's website
- Listing in Beaune
- Article on Beaune's website
- Listing on the official website of the Cineteca di Bologna
- Cambridge Film Festival listing
- Cambridge Film Festival reviews
- Listing on the official website of the Amiens International Film Festival
- CineCity Brighton Film Festival webpage
- Listing on the website of the Franco-Japanese Institute
- Global Times listing
- Listing on the official website of Premiers Plans festival
- TéléObs article
- Listing on Programme-TV.com
- Listing on Cinemotions
- Belgian review
- Japanese listing on Douban.com
Categories:- French-language films
- French film directors
- French films
- Documentary films about World War II
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