Michel Deville

Directing

Michel Deville

Born 1931-04-13 · Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Deville started his filmmaking career in the late 1950s, paralleling the emergence of the French New Wave directors. He never achieved the level of critical and international recognition of some of his contemporaries such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol, 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.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Les Capricieux poster
8.3

In post-revolutionary France, two neighbouring aristocrats embark on a dangerous game when they agree to help a Polish agent.

Les Capricieux

1984

Love at the Top poster
6.1

A shy bank employee unexpectedly invites a young woman to a café, leading to a one-night stand. When he shares this with his disillusioned friend, the writer helps him navigate a dazzling social ascent.

Love at the Top

1974

Lucky Jo poster
6.7

Lucky Jo and his three friends are little criminals, who try to live from small burglaries. But they never have luck - ever so often something inpredictable happens to Jo and gets one of them arrested. While Jo is in prison once again, they decide they'd better do without him in future. He decides to help them secretly...and unfortunately.

Lucky Jo

1964

Lucky Jo poster
6.7

Lucky Jo and his three friends are little criminals, who try to live from small burglaries. But they never have luck - ever so often something inpredictable happens to Jo and gets one of them arrested. While Jo is in prison once again, they decide they'd better do without him in future. He decides to help them secretly...and unfortunately.

Lucky Jo

1964

Tender Sharks poster
9.0

While an admiral's son is hunted by secret agents, his sister plays his part on a warship.

Tender Sharks

1967

Lest We Forget poster
7.0

A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

Lest We Forget

1991

Deep Water poster
6.1

On the island of Jersey, off the French coast, Mélanie, a beautiful woman gifted with a captivating personality, enjoys having unimportant love affairs that her husband Victor, a perfumer older than her, seems to endure with total indifference.

Deep Water

1981

Deep Water poster
6.1

On the island of Jersey, off the French coast, Mélanie, a beautiful woman gifted with a captivating personality, enjoys having unimportant love affairs that her husband Victor, a perfumer older than her, seems to endure with total indifference.

Deep Water

1981

Dossier 51 poster
6.4

A French diplomat is surveilled by a secret service to find a weakness for political control, his private life becoming 'File No. 51'.

Dossier 51

1978

Dossier 51 poster
6.4

A French diplomat is surveilled by a secret service to find a weakness for political control, his private life becoming 'File No. 51'.

Dossier 51

1978

The Apprentice Heel poster
6.2

After a car accident in which his mother dies, Antoine Chapelote decides to change his life and become a con-artist. He meets a young girl Caroline who helps him with his scam.

The Apprentice Heel

1977

The Apprentice Heel poster
6.2

After a car accident in which his mother dies, Antoine Chapelote decides to change his life and become a con-artist. He meets a young girl Caroline who helps him with his scam.

The Apprentice Heel

1977

Death in a French Garden poster
6.0

A wealthy wife's affair with her daughter's guitar tutor is threatened when the tutor is attacked and rescued by a hired killer, leading him to suspect their secret is out.

Death in a French Garden

1985

Death in a French Garden poster
6.0

A wealthy wife's affair with her daughter's guitar tutor is threatened when the tutor is attacked and rescued by a hired killer, leading him to suspect their secret is out.

Death in a French Garden

1985

Raphael or the Debauched One poster
6.1

In 1830s France, a virtuous widow falls for a self-destructive debauchee obsessed with death. Initial resistance gives way to a desperate and cynical romance.

Raphael or the Debauched One

1971

The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen poster
5.2

A thief falls in love with a maid and goes on the run after stealing Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen

1966

The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen poster
5.2

A thief falls in love with a maid and goes on the run after stealing Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen

1966

Summer Night in Town poster
5.6

Unable to sleep in the sweltering heat, a young couple bares their bodies --- and their souls --- to each other over one life-changing night. They didn't know each other when the night began. It got hot, they stayed in. Now they know each other better than most.

Summer Night in Town

1990

The Bear and the Doll poster
6.2

A quiet cellist living in the countryside has his life disrupted when he accidentally bumps into a wealthy, temperamental woman in a Rolls-Royce. Angered by his indifference to her charm, she attempts to seduce him, but he resists her attempts to invade his peaceful life.

The Bear and the Doll

1970

The Bear and the Doll poster
6.2

A quiet cellist living in the countryside has his life disrupted when he accidentally bumps into a wealthy, temperamental woman in a Rolls-Royce. Angered by his indifference to her charm, she attempts to seduce him, but he resists her attempts to invade his peaceful life.

The Bear and the Doll

1970

The Nonentity poster
6.1

Each evening, four men – a doctor, a journalist, a professor and a merchant – meet up in a deserted bar to play cards. As they play, the bar’s owner, her downtrodden barman (nicknamed “le paltoquet”) and a strange woman in white watch from a distance. One night, the card game is disturbed when a police inspector suddenly appears and declares that a dead body has been found nearby. Certain that one of the four men is the murderer, the inspector starts his investigation. All the evidence suggests that the doctor did the deed, but we soon learn that nothing is quite what it seems…

The Nonentity

1986

The Nonentity poster
6.1

Each evening, four men – a doctor, a journalist, a professor and a merchant – meet up in a deserted bar to play cards. As they play, the bar’s owner, her downtrodden barman (nicknamed “le paltoquet”) and a strange woman in white watch from a distance. One night, the card game is disturbed when a police inspector suddenly appears and declares that a dead body has been found nearby. Certain that one of the four men is the murderer, the inspector starts his investigation. All the evidence suggests that the doctor did the deed, but we soon learn that nothing is quite what it seems…

The Nonentity

1986

The Gods Must Be Daring poster
4.5

A priceless statuette "Dancing God" is transfered from Africa to France. Scoundrels of all stripes are dreaming of steeling it. The most clever of them are trying to replace the original with the copy. Chases, adventures, breathtaking stunts, shootouts - life is not worth a penny, when the priceless treasure is on stake.

The Gods Must Be Daring

1997

The Gods Must Be Daring poster
4.5

A priceless statuette "Dancing God" is transfered from Africa to France. Scoundrels of all stripes are dreaming of steeling it. The most clever of them are trying to replace the original with the copy. Chases, adventures, breathtaking stunts, shootouts - life is not worth a penny, when the priceless treasure is on stake.

The Gods Must Be Daring

1997