One of the most consistently innovative filmmakers of his generation, Louis Malle has rarely received the critical attention his work deserves. Unlike the other directors most often associated with the French New Wave--Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Chabrol--Malle did not contribute criticism to Cahiers du Cinema; unlike those filmmakers, he came from a privileged background, as an heir to the Beghin sugar fortune. His work is not easily evaluated according to the tenets of the auteur theory promoted by these critics-turned-filmmakers, who emphasized consistently recognizable stylistic or thematic
