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Wjbfarrell (talk | contribs) Added more information about Melville's family and early life, and his and his brother's service in the Resistance and Free French Army |
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==Life and career==
Jean-Pierre Grumbach was born in 1917 in Paris, France, the son of Berthe and Jules Grumbach.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lisa90.org/lisa1/genealogies/tree_hor.php?lang=fr&n_tr=2 |title=Arbre |publisher=Lisa90.org |access-date=12 August 2014}}</ref> His family were [[History of the Jews in Alsace|Alsatian Jews]]. His father was a rag merchant; the family lived in ninth-[[Arrondissement|arrondissment]] of Paris. His eldest brother Jacques wrote for the Socialist Party weekly [[Le Populaire (French newspaper)|Le Populaire]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Shatz |first=Adam |date=20 June 2019 |title=Who does that for anyone? |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n12/adam-shatz/who-does-that-for-anyone |journal=London Review of Books |volume=41 |issue=12 |issn=0260-9592 |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>
Grumbach left school at 17 working as a courier and then a wedding photographer. In 1937 he joined the Communist Party, but left in 1939 over the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|Hitler-Stalin Pact]].<ref name=":0" />
After the fall of France in 1940 during [[World War II]], during which he was [[Dunkirk evacuation|evacuated from Dunkirk]] as a soldier in the [[French Army]], Grumbach entered the [[French Resistance]] to oppose the German [[Nazis]] who occupied the country.<ref name = Lane>{{cite news|url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/jean-pierre-melvilles-cinema-of-resistance|title = Jean-Pierre Melville's Cinema of Resistance|magazine = [[The New Yorker]]|last = Lane|first = Anthony|authorlink = Anthony Lane|date = 1 May 2017|accessdate = 3 August 2022|url-access = limited}}</ref> He adopted the nom de guerre Melville after the American author [[Herman Melville]], a favourite of his.<ref name = Lane/>▼
▲After the fall of France in 1940 during [[World War II]], during which he was [[Dunkirk evacuation|evacuated from Dunkirk]] as a soldier in the [[French Army]], Grumbach entered the [[French Resistance]] to oppose the German [[Nazis]] who occupied the country.<ref name
In 1942, both Jean-Pierre and Jacques crossed the Pyrenees and headed for neutral Spain where they would then try to reach Britain and the Free French Army. They crossed separately several weeks apart. Jacques was carrying money intended for de Gaulle; he shot dead and robbed by his guide. Jean-Pierre did not find out that his brother had been killed until the war ended.<ref name=":0" /> Grumbach served in the Free French Army for two years, mainly in the artillery. He unit were sent to Italy and Grumbach fought at the [[Battle of Monte Cassino|Battle of Monte Casino]].<ref name=":0" />
When he returned from the war, he applied for a license to become an assistant director but was refused. Without this support, he decided to direct his films by his own means, and continued to use Melville as his stage name. He became an independent filmmaker and owned his own studio, rue Jenner, in [[13th arrondissement of Paris|Paris 13ème]].<ref>[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1042590%7C0/TCM-Imports-for-November.html Silence of the Sea-TCM.com]</ref>
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