Deville is a French director and screenwriter. He began his film career in early 1950s as assistant director to Henri Decoin. He co-directed the feature film A Slug in the Heater (Une balle dans le canon, 1958) with the director and actor Charles Gérard. Two years later he made his feature film debut Tonight or Never (Ce soir ou jamais, 1960) for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Nina Companéez. They continued to work together on other films such as Adorable Liar (Adorable menteuse, 1961), Lucky Jo (1964), Soldier Martin (Martin Soldat, 1966), Tender Sharks (Zärtliche Haie, 1967), Benjamin (1968), The Bear and the Doll (L' ours et la poupée, 1970) and Raphael, or The Debauched One (Raphaël ou le débauché, 1971). Some of his later films are Love at the Top (Le mouton enragé, 1974), Dossier 51 (Le dossier 51, 1978), Sentimental Journey (Le voyage en douce, 1980), Deep Water (Eaux profondes, 1981), Death in a French Garden (Péril en la demeure, 1985) and The Reader (La lectrice, 1988).