Former assistant to Louis Malle and Edouard Molinaro who came of age with the New Wave, directing "Le Combat dans l'Ile" (1962). Best known for "La Chamade" (1968), a smoothly handled romance written in collaboration with Francoise Sagan (whose novel it is based on), and "Therese" (1986), a well-acted and nuanced portrait of 19th-century Carmelite convent life.