La femme d’à côté
(François Truffaut, 1981)
Two ex-lovers wind up living next door
to each other with their respective spouses. Forbidden passions ensue.
Showing posts with label François Truffaut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label François Truffaut. Show all posts
2016-04-25
2013-05-15
Fahrenheit 451
Set in the future of an imaginary country, this tale of a dystopian future was originally written by Ray Bradbury in his novel of the same name. Starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie this film directed by François Truffaut was one of the films I wanted to watch for a long time since I discovered the films of this auteur. Since he did not make a lot of genre films, and the ones he directed were very unique like his Vivement Dimanche! which is an ode to Hitchcock’s thrillers or Le dernier métro a film on the German occupation in France. Fahrenheit 451 is his sole entry in the Sci-Fi genre and I was intrigued to find what he did with the great novel of Bradbury.
2012-01-31
La nuit américaine
In this love letter to the seventh Art by one of its greatest lovers of all time, François Truffaut, the Cinema, the making of, the world in front and behind the camera is exposed like a porn star in a XXX feature. Truffaut wants to present all his passion and love to the medium by showing to the public and his comrades the craft of making a film within a film. Almost shot like a documentary but clearly a fiction, La nuit américaine is one of Truffaut's most well-known film.
With an uneven but interesting plot Truffaut wants us to feel his dedication to film making and cinephilia. Almost redefining the term cinephile for himself first with his writings in Les Cahiers du Cinema then while being one of the most celebrated French cinéaste and one of the two main figures of the French New Wave with Jean-Luc Godard La nuit américaine stands out like a masturbatory exercise that could have been more than a cult film but that carries dreamt sequences of pure cinematic bliss and many forced dramatic events that could have been spared in the script.
However, one cinephile cannot be cold blooded by Truffaut's film and this is mainly what saves the entire picture from falling apart. The naive charm and the passionate hugs from the maker to the final product are enough to court the most heartless of cinephiles.
2011-12-04
Truffaut Double Bill: Les mistons & Antoine et Colette
Les mistons (François Truffaut, 1957)
François Truffaut’s first film, a brilliant homage to Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite about childhood, first and impossible love. The breezy approach, the smooth narration, the comic relief of the kids, the first moments of François Truffaut’s “mise en scène”, the sad denouement, and the bitter sweet conclusion of this short makes it a masterpiece of its own. Hugely overlooked because of the incomparable success of Les 400 coups, Truffaut’s Les mistons deserves way much praise than it actually received. Evoking his sensibility and his subtle humour, this 1957 short offers the critic’s first opportunity to make a film, the medium he is passionate about.
Antoine et Colette [segment of L’amour à vingt ans] (François Truffaut, 1962)
The first segment of L’amour à vingt ans, a film « porte-manteau » co-directed by Renzo Rossellini, Andrzej Wajda, Shinoda Imamura, and Marcel Ophüls, Antoine et Colette is a sequel to Les 400 coups (1959) and the prequel to Baisers volés (1968).
We are catching up with Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), now seventeen and out of a reform school. He is working at Phillips, making records and living like an adult in his apartment. Doinel has made for himself a solitary life with one friend. Shortly, he’ll meet Colette and quickly fall in love with her. However, Colette doesn’t return his advances and she considers him as only a friend. Doinel will be almost adopted by Colette’s parents and he’ll even move in an apartment facing theirs. Their relationship is almost like if it was a family recomposed. For Doinel, this is like the parents he never had and it gives him the opportunity to spend more time with Colette.
This short will give the rhythm to the rest of the Antoine Doinel cycle. This quirky character, naive at times and childish at other moments will have to face the adult life he always wanted to live. Meanwhile, all his life he’ll be acting like a child, the Doinel of Les 400 coups that wanted to be an adult as fast as possible will always have to struggle to understand the world of adults. Antoine et Colette is the perfect link between Les 400 coups and Baisers volés. The melancholy and sadness that the Doinel films own and the bitter sweet savoury touch of the situations will be one of the trademarks of Truffaut/Léaud.
François Truffaut’s first film, a brilliant homage to Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite about childhood, first and impossible love. The breezy approach, the smooth narration, the comic relief of the kids, the first moments of François Truffaut’s “mise en scène”, the sad denouement, and the bitter sweet conclusion of this short makes it a masterpiece of its own. Hugely overlooked because of the incomparable success of Les 400 coups, Truffaut’s Les mistons deserves way much praise than it actually received. Evoking his sensibility and his subtle humour, this 1957 short offers the critic’s first opportunity to make a film, the medium he is passionate about.
Antoine et Colette [segment of L’amour à vingt ans] (François Truffaut, 1962)
The first segment of L’amour à vingt ans, a film « porte-manteau » co-directed by Renzo Rossellini, Andrzej Wajda, Shinoda Imamura, and Marcel Ophüls, Antoine et Colette is a sequel to Les 400 coups (1959) and the prequel to Baisers volés (1968).
We are catching up with Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), now seventeen and out of a reform school. He is working at Phillips, making records and living like an adult in his apartment. Doinel has made for himself a solitary life with one friend. Shortly, he’ll meet Colette and quickly fall in love with her. However, Colette doesn’t return his advances and she considers him as only a friend. Doinel will be almost adopted by Colette’s parents and he’ll even move in an apartment facing theirs. Their relationship is almost like if it was a family recomposed. For Doinel, this is like the parents he never had and it gives him the opportunity to spend more time with Colette.
This short will give the rhythm to the rest of the Antoine Doinel cycle. This quirky character, naive at times and childish at other moments will have to face the adult life he always wanted to live. Meanwhile, all his life he’ll be acting like a child, the Doinel of Les 400 coups that wanted to be an adult as fast as possible will always have to struggle to understand the world of adults. Antoine et Colette is the perfect link between Les 400 coups and Baisers volés. The melancholy and sadness that the Doinel films own and the bitter sweet savoury touch of the situations will be one of the trademarks of Truffaut/Léaud.
Top films of François Truffaut by LMdC
1. Jules et Jim (1961)
2. Les 400 coups (1959)
3. Baisers volés (1968)
4. La nuit américaine (1973)
5. Le dernier métro (1980)
6. Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)
7. Antoine et Colette (1962)
8. Les Mistons (1957)
7. Domicile conjugal (1970)
8. L’amour en fuite (1978)
9. Vivement Dimanche! (1983)
10. La peau douce (1964)
11. Les deux anglaises et le continent (1972)
12. L’homme qui aimait les femmes (1977)
Read: John from The Droid You're Looking For writes about the importance of François Truffaut.
2010-06-09
Les films de sa vie...
Les films de ma vie by François Truffaut is a recollection of many film reviews he has written during his years at Les Cahiers du Cinéma and during his career as a "cinéaste" of the "Nouvelle Vague" (French New Wave). Of the many filmmakers the French New Wave put light on, Truffaut is the one I have seen the most of his films. For a long time, he was and still probably is my favorite of this "group" (it was not a group of artists like the surrealists).
When someone watches Jules et Jim or L'amour en fuite one can sense how Truffaut loved his medium. It's the same thing I felt when I read Les films de ma vie, he writes about classic films like Rear Window or Lola Montès with so much passion that I will have to watch these films again because he brought so much new light to their understanding and their qualities that it's like I will see these films for the first time again!
His writings are more than just reviews or criticisms. They are love letters to the seventh Art! At some point in your life someone/a questionary/ a job interview or whatever context it is will ask you: Who in the History of the world would you ressucite to discuss with? I think I will have to answer François Truffaut!
So writing that he is an inspiration for this blogger here won't surprise you I guess...
Just in case you wondered this post is in the Suggested readings of this Blog.
2009-10-27
Hitchcock de François Truffaut - Lectures suggérées
Pour toute personne intéressée par le Cinéma je vous présente ici une lecture incontournable pour votre culture générale et qui permet à tous de saisir l'histoire du Cinéma ainsi que l'approche personnelle qu'avait Alfred Hitchcock vis-à-vis du média et de ses propres films. Écrit par François Truffaut l'un des visages les plus important de la Nouvelle Vague française cinéaste inspiré et critique des Cahiers du Cinéma ayant des connaissances encyclopédiques.
Dans le livre Hitchcock on nous présente une série d'entrevues entre ces deux grands du Cinéma. Réalisées sur plusieurs années, ces entrevues sont menées par Truffaut qui laisse une grande place au maître du suspense à s'exprimer sur les thèmes, les forces et aussi les faiblesses de ses films. Certains détracteurs de ce livre comme Ingmar Bergman, ont dit que la personnalité prétentieuse de Hitchcock prend toute la place et qu'on n'en voit pas l'analyse de ses travaux. Malgré les faiblesses du livre il reste tout de même incontournable!
François Truffaut, avec la collaboration de Helen G. Scott, Hitchcock, rev. ed., Simon & Schuster, New York, 1984.
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