[2] After studying painting at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, he became involved in cinema as an assistant to his cousin Jean-Pierre Melville.
[3] He directed three short films under his production company Port Royal Films, including the Poor Man's Soliloquies (1951) and Auditorium (1957), then made his feature film debut with On n'enterre pas le dimanche (1959), a study on the existential solitude of a black person in Paris, which coincided with the French New Wave[4] and earned him the Louis Delluc Prize.
Violins at the Ball which evoked his Jewish childhood during the Occupation of France also starred his wife who received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.
Tell Me About Love (1975), Le Passé simple, and Guy de Maupassant (1982), confirmed his appeal for psychological intrigue.
[4] In 1986, with Sauve-toi, Lola, he tackled the theme of cancer, then the relationship between grandfather and grandson in Il est Génial Papy!