Who was Jean-Pierre Melville?

Jean-Pierre Melville (born Jean-Pierre Grumbach; 20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker and actor. Among his films are "Le Silence de la mer" (1949), "Le Doulos" (1962), "Le Samouraï" (1967), "Army of Shadows" (1969) and "Le Cercle Rouge" (1970).

While with the French Resistance during World War II, he adopted the pseudonym Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author Herman Melville. He kept it as his stage name once the war was over. Spiritual father of the French New Wave, he has influenced new generations of filmmakers in Asia (John Woo, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, Takeshi Kitano), in Europe (Aki Kaurismäki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder), and in America (Michael Mann, Walter Hill, Quentin Tarantino, William Friedkin, Jim Jarmusch).