He was formerly a critic. A romantic and intensely humane filmmaker, he wrote and directed a series of semi-autobiographical films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, beginning with Les Quatre Cent Coups/The 400 Blows 1959. His other films include Jules et Jim 1961, Fahrenheit 451 1966, L'Enfant sauvage/The Wild Child 1970, and La Nuit americaine/Day for Night 1973 (Academy Award). His passion in cinema led to a job as film critic for Cahiers du cinema during the 1950s before embarking on his career as director. His later work includes The Story of Adele H 1975 and Le Dernier Metro/The Last Metro 1980. He played one of the leading roles in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977.
