Le feu follet (1963)

Louis Malle’s head-spinning tale of depression, his great early film, set to the Gnossienes of Erik Satie, was adapted from a novel Will o’ the Wisp by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. The novelist was a collaborator during World War Two and committed suicide in 1945 despite being under the protection of Andre Malraux. A decade after this film Malle made up for the mostly apolitical stance of the Nouvelle Vague by making Lacombe, Lucien, that masterpiece on the touchy subject.