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François Truffaut (1932-1984)

Like all artists, filmmakers search for realism in
The sense that they search for their own reality,
And they are generally tormented by the chasm
Between their aspirations and what they have
Actually produced, between life as they feel it
And what they have managed to reproduce of it.

~ Francois Truffaut (from Truffaut's book The Films In My Life)


Filmography

Une visite (short, 1955)

Les Mistons (short, 1957) Criterion (R1) – included as extra in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Box / Madman (R4 AU) – included as extra on The 400 Blows /

Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) (1959) Criterion (R1) – also included in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel / Tartan (R2 UK) – also included in the Essential Truffaut Collection / Madman (R4 AU) /

Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960) Criterion (R1) / Alliance Atlantis (R1 CA)

Tire-au-flanc 62 (The Army Game) (co-directed with Claude de Givray, 1960)

Une histoire d'eau (A Story of Water) (short, co-directed with Jean-Luc Godard, 1961) Alto Media (R3 SK) – included on the Their First Films collection / AV Channel (R4 AU) – as extra on Vivre Sa Vie

Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim) (1962) Criterion (R1) / Tartan (R2 UK) – also included in the Essential Truffaut Collection

L'amour à vingt ans (Love at Twenty) (segment « Antoine et Colette « , 1962) Criterion (R1) – included in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Box

La peau douce (The Soft Skin) (1964) Fox Lorber (R1) / Tartan (R2 UK) – also included in the Essential Truffaut Collection

Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Universal (R1) / Universal (R2 UK, DE)

La Mariée était en noir (The Bride Wore Black) (1968) MGM (R1)

Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses) (1968) Criterion (R1) – included in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Box

La Sirène du Mississippi (Mississippi Mermaid) (1969) MGM (R1)

L'enfant sauvage (The Wild Child) (1970) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Domicile conjugal (Bed & Board) (1970) Criterion (R1) – included in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Box / Cinema Club (R2 UK)

Les deux anglaises et le continent (Two English Girls) (1971) Alliance Atlantis (Canada) / mk2 (R2 FR)

Une belle file comme moi (Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me) (1972) Cinema Club (R2 UK)

La nuit américaine (Day for Night) (1973) Warner (R1) / Warner (R2 JP)

L'histoire d'Adèle H (The Story of Adele H) (1975) MGM (R1)

L'argent de poche (Small Change) (1976) MGM (R1)

L'homme qui aimait les femmes (The Man Who Loved Women) (1977) MGM (R1)

La chamber verte (The Green Room) (1978)

L'amour en fuite (Love on the Run) (1979) Criterion (R1) – included in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Box

Le dernier metro (The Last Metro) (1980) Fox Lorber (R1) / Tartan (R2 UK) – also included in the Essential Truffaut Collection / Cinema Club (R2 UK)

La femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door) (1981) Fox Lorber (R1) / Panorama (R3 HK)

Vivement dimanche! (Confidentially Yours) (1983) Fox Lorber (R1) / Alliance Atlantis (R1 CA)

NOTE: Truffaut is very well represented on DVD in all regions, and the DVD releases cited in the above filmography have been selected largely from an anglo-centric standpoint. If a title is released by a major studio (like MGM) in R1, it will in most cases also be out from the same studio in several EU countries. In France, the great majority of Truffaut's films have been released by the estimable label mk2. The only titles that appear to be completely unavailable anywhere at this point are the first short film Une visite, the late film La chamber verte/The Green Room (1978), and Claude de Givray's film Tire-au-flanc 62 / The Army Game (1960) on which Truffaut served as co-director. If it is felt that a very special release of a Truffaut film should be included in the above list, please send me a pm.


General Discussion

mk2

Tradition of Quality Cinema


Recommended Web Resources

Films de France – detailed overview of Truffaut's career

Salon.com

Senses of Cinema – the usual in depth article + a handful of other articles on specific films

Strictly Film School

World Socialist Web Site – article on the occasion of Truffaut program at the Detroit Film Theatre


Books/Articles

The Films In My Life by François Truffaut (Da Capo, 1994)

François Truffaut by Annette Insdorf (Touchstone, 1989)

Truffaut: A Biography by Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999)

Does anyone have recommendations on a biography and/or critical analysis of Truffaut's cinema? I am looking for something close to definitive, and baring that, a good read.

Try Francois Truffaut by Annette Insdorf. It's an excellent study. Available here.

Having just seen The Story of Adele H this weekend, I intended to open up this thread and write about my puzzlement at what a mediocre movie it was, but then I see that GringoTex calls it Truffaut's masterpiece. Hmmmm? What am I missing here? I am not a Truffaut hater; in fact, I'll confess that I'm a sucker for sentimentality and that I greatly enjoy the tenderness (as David Hare called it) of Truffaut's work, but I could not find anything to admire about Adele H. The movie struck me as some kind of cheap, made-for-cable melodrama. Maybe it plays better if one is familiar with Victor Hugo and how his daughter's obsessions affected his life and work.

I agree with Gringo, I think Adele H ranks alongside Truffaut's first three films and the underrated The Wild Child.

It's true that the cinematography is in dark and deep tones, but this brings the characters' emotional lives closer to us. I can't believe that the work of Nestor Almendros could be described as looking " like a cheap, made for cable melodrama", you must have seen a shitty print. And Isabelle Adjani, playing a woman much older than herself, gives one of the great performances of the 1970s.

Maybe you'll give it another try sometime.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned elsewhere, but here is a link to the ongoing schedule of the new 35 mm print of "The Wild Child" touring theaters. It's already hit the West Coast, but will be coming to San Diego for a week starting January 30 before heading east through late February.

An interview with Laura Truffaut about Wild Child which is touring in a new print.

In this clip from Day for Night, who is the last book about, the one right after Bresson, it looks like an image from a Cocteau film, but I cant really tell.

No idea, sorry, but doesn't the guy on the right look like Dirk Bogarde? It's probably not, as I can't think what film of his would fit in with Truffaut's auteur pantheon, and otherwise the still looks like a 20s / 30s French film to me.

Joseph Losey? He wrote a book called Image et Son: Revue de Cinema - and, of course, Bogarde was in a few of his films.

The picture on the cover is from The Damned (it was bugging me and I don't get out much, so I checked).

In the middle of a marathon on TCM right now. Just finished Jules & Jim and The 400 Blows, with The Bride Wore Black, Small Change and The Wild Child to come. Don't know if I'll make it through TBWB; I don't dig Hitchcock and apparently this is a homage... but then my favorite Truffaut is Shoot the Piano Player so you never know. I'd like to hear some opinions on these films...

I saw The Wild Child in theaters, hideous yellow subs, early this year and thought it was very good. No where near the 400 Blows, but still better then average.I'm surprised at how good an actor Truffaut was though.

The Wild Child is one of Truffaut's two or three best films. I would only rate Jules et Jim and Shoot the Piano Player above it.

It has a fairly ordinary DVD by MGM, and it would be nice to see it get a proper release.

The Bride Wore Black is a brilliant tongue in the cheek thriller, great fun! And I agree, Wild Child is one of the 3 or 4 or 5 best Truffaut films. A beautiful beautiful film.

I just want to say how much I love Antoine et Colette. Too bad shorts don't get much love or attention from audiences or critics -- it's seriously one of my very favorite Truffauts (#3ish?).

It's definitely my favorite entry in the Antoine Doinel cycle

would anybody be able to tell me where i could find the music used in "L'histoire d'Adele H." to download? i can't find it anywhere

chizbooga wrote:would anybody be able to tell me where i could find the music used in "L'histoire d'Adele H." to download? i can't find it anywhere

Try this to start

thanks!

May I suggest that we add the Amazon link for the MGM DVD-R on demand of THE GREEN ROOM to the resoures list?

http://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Fiancee ... B003B3O5J0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd lean more toward Highway 61's assessement of The Story of Adele H., though I can't dismiss it altogether because of Isabelle Adjani and Nestor Almendros' cinematography. Here are some comments I made elsewhere on the board while comparing the film (unfavorably) to The Red Desert:

I just watched The Story of Adele H. and while the (true) story was intriguing, the way the film is made it's impossible to get inside her head. You're just watching a crazy person act out. This made me want to stop watching the film after about 20 minutes or so. I think part of its failure is due to the fact that Truffaut ends up falling back on his same old stylistic tropes without really stretching himself to meet the challenge of his subject.

I think you're right up to a point about Truffaut attempting to present The Story of Adele H. in a clinical and precise manner. You can see that in the way he handles the responses of the townspeople and her love object. For instance, I liked the character of the bookseller, a nice element in the script. But Truffaut was not as good at directing actors speaking English as he was at those speaking French, which is understandable. There's something a little off about the English-language conversations in the film. Also, Truffaut doesn't just stop at representing Adele Hugo objectively -- he shows us her recurring nightmare, among other things. And he inserts deliberately lyrical touches such as showing her face superimposed over waves as she reads aloud a letter to her parents. I felt that the latter device was very tired by that point in Truffaut's career. If he had been truly clinical and hadn't resorted to overused stylistic tropes like this, the film probably would have worked better for me. Maybe it would have worked better if she had been less of a protagonist and more of a springboard for other people's reactions. In the way that the doctor and his perspective is the true center of The Wild Child, not the feral boy. All the same, Isabelle Adjani was remarkable.

In general, I'm one of those who see a marked decline (with important exceptions) in Truffaut's work in the latter half of his career. Rewatching the Antoine Doinel series, what struck me was how quickly the law of diminishing returns sets in after the twin masterpieces of Les Quatre cent coups and Antoine et Colette. Each film after that declines precipitously to the outright dreadful Love on the Run. He still made some very fine films, of course, such as L'Enfant sauvage.

On the other hand, I'm totally with David Hare on La Peau douce. I had avoided that film for a while due to its reputation as a lesser Truffaut, but when I finally watched it I was astonished at what a subtly rendered drama it was. After Jules and Jim, it's the one I'd most like to see Criterion release on Blu-ray, though that is probably unlikely. At any rate, it's due for a reappraisal.

[Edit: corrected spelling of La Peau douce]

Tire-au-flanc 62 will be shown on Swedish television tomorrow (Aug 18). I know this is pretty useless info for most posters here but since it's such a rare film I thought I'd mention it anyway. Maybe there are some (other) Scandinavian Francophiles out there? There is a lot of nouvelle vague on Swedish tv this week btw. (Godard, Truffaut, Varda, Rivette, Rohmer), but "Tire-au-flanc 62" is the only really rare film.

It looks as if I may get my wishes on La Peau douce eventually! Janus Films is distributing a new 35mm print--it's opening at the Film Forum in March. Surely a new Criterion edition is on the horizon, as well...