Francois Truffaut

At 52 years old, Francois Truffaut has this physical status:

François Roland Truffaut (UK: TROO-foh, TRUUF-oh, US: troo-FOH; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic.

He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave.

In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry, having worked on over 25 films.

Truffaut's film The 400 Blows came to be a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and was followed by four sequels, Antoine et Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run, between 1958 and 1979. Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim and several accolades, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1961), The Soft Skin (1964), The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971), The Last Metro (1980), and The Woman Next Door (1981).

Early life

Truffaut was born in Paris on 6 February 1932. His mother was Janine de Montferrand. His mother's future husband, Roland Truffaut, accepted him as an adopted son and gave him his surname. He was passed around to live with various nannies and his grandmother for a number of years. His grandmother instilled in him her love of books and music. He lived with her until her death, when Truffaut was eight years old. It was only after her death that he lived with his parents. Truffaut's biological father's identity is unknown, but a private detective agency in 1968 revealed that its inquiry into the matter led to a Roland Levy, a Jewish dentist from Bayonne. Truffaut's mother's family disputed the finding but Truffaut believed and embraced it.

Truffaut often stayed with friends and tried to be out of the house as much as possible. He knew Robert Lachenay from childhood, and they were lifelong best friends. Lachenay was the inspiration for the character René Bigey in The 400 Blows and worked as an assistant on some of Truffaut's films. Cinema offered Truffaut the greatest escape from an unsatisfying home life. He was eight years old when he saw his first movie, Abel Gance's Paradis Perdu (Paradise Lost, 1939), beginning his obsession. He frequently skipped school and sneaked into theaters because he lacked the money for admission. After being expelled from several schools, at age 14 he decided to become self-taught. Two of his academic goals were to watch three movies a day and read three books a week.

Truffaut frequented Henri Langlois's Cinémathèque Française, where he was exposed to countless foreign films, becoming familiar with American cinema and directors such as John Ford, Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray, as well as those of British director Alfred Hitchcock.

Personal life

Truffaut was married to Madeleine Morgenstern from 1957 to 1965, and they had two daughters, Laura (born 1959) and Eva (born 1961). Madeleine was the daughter of Ignace Morgenstern, managing director of one of France's largest film distribution companies, Cocinor, and was largely responsible for securing funding for Truffaut's first films.

In 1968 Truffaut was engaged to actress Claude Jade (Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run); he and Fanny Ardant (The Woman Next Door, Confidentially Yours) lived together from 1981 to 1984 and had a daughter, Joséphine Truffaut (born 28 September 1983).

Truffaut was an atheist, but had great respect for the Catholic Church and requested a Requiem Mass for his funeral.

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Career

Truffaut met André Bazin, who had a major influence on his professional and personal life, after starting his own film club in 1948. At the time, Bazin was both a critic and the head of a different film group. He became a personal friend of Truffaut's and helped him out of a variety of financial and criminal issues during his formative years.

Truffaut joined the French Army in 1950, aged 18, but he spent the next two years struggling to recover. He was arrested for attempting to escape the army and incarcerated in military jail. Truffaut was fired and put up for a job at his new film journal, Cahiers du cinéma, thanks to Bazin's political connections.

Truffaut became a writer (and later editor) at Cahiers, where he became well-known for his brutal, unforgiving reviews over the next few years. He was dubbed "The Gravedigger of French Cinema" and was the only French critic not invited to the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. Bazin is credited with the introduction of one of cinema's most influential theories, the auteur theory.

Truffaut wrote an article in Cahiers du Cinema entitled "Une Certaine Tendance du Cinema"), in which he criticised the French film industry, criticizing certain screenwriters and developers, Abel Gance, Max Ophuls, and Roger Leenhardt, among other things, described as "incapable" and "grotesque" characters and storylines he described as typical of the mainstream French cinema industry. Truffaut was given an invitation to write for the Arts-Lettres-Spectacles, a nationally distributed, more widely read cultural magazine. Over the next four years, Truffaut will have written more than 500 film articles for the magazine.

Truffaut invented the auteur theory later, according to a book by the director, who was "author" of his career. Renoir or Hitchcock, for example, have distinct styles and themes that permeate their films. Despite the fact that his theory was not widely accepted back then, it did gain some traction in the 1960s from American critic Andrew Sarris. Truffaut's book-length interview with Hitchcock, Hitchcock/Truffaut appeared in 1967 (New York: Simon and Schuster).

Truffaut wanted to make films after being a critic. He began with the short film Une Visite (1955) and later with Les Mistons (1957).

Truffaut made his debut with The 400 Blows (1959), which received a lot of praise both critically and commercially, after seeing Orson Welles' Touch of Evil at the Expo 58. At the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, he was named Best Director. The film follows Antoine Doinel's story through his education, an unhappy home life, and then reform school. The film is largely autobiographical. Both Truffaut and Doinel were children of loveless marriages; they both committed minor offences of coercion and truancy from the military. Jean-Pierre Léaud was portrayed as Doinel by Truffaut. After being seen as an ordinary boy of 14 who auditioned for the role after seeing a flyer, Léaud's natural beauty and an instinctive knowledge of acting for the camera were evident in the film's Criterion DVD version. Over the years, Léaud and Truffaut collaborated on various films. Doinel's story told in a series of films titled "The Antoine Doinel Cycle" was their most notable collaboration.

Doinel's life is the primary focus of The 400 Blows. The film follows him through his turbulent childhood. He is trapped between an unhappy parent relationship and an isolescent youth. Truffaut was born in a difficult situation. Because he was born out of wedlock, his birth had to be kept a mystery because of the stigma of illegitimacy. He was listed as "a child born to an unknown father" in hospital records and looked after by a nurse for a long time. His mother died before marrying, and his husband gave François his surname, Truffaut.

Although he was legally recognised as a legitimate child, his parents did not accept him. Another child, the Truffauts, died shortly after birth. They were saddened by the event, and as a result, they depised François for the sorrow he displayed (Knopf 4). He was an outcast from his youth, and was branded an unwanted child. François was sent to live with his grandparents. His parents took him in when his grandmother died, much to his mother's dismay. His mother's experiences were traumatic. He recalled being treated poorly by her mother, but he found solace in his father's laughter and spirit. After moving in with his parents, François had a very sad childhood. When vacations, they left him alone. He even remembered being alone during Christmas. Being left alone pushed François into independence, he's often doing various tasks around the house to make it more efficient, such as painting or changing the electrical outlets. Sadly, these kind gestures often resulted in tragic events, prompting him to be scolded by his mother. Their father, on the other hand, dismissed them out of office.

The 400 Blows marked the start of the French New Wave movement, giving directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette a larger audience. The New Wave was a self-conscious critique of traditional cinema style. Truffaut had been writing for years on this subject.

Truffaut's next film, Shoot the Piano Player (1960), starring Charles Aznavour, followed the success of The 400 Blows. Truffaut has said that he discovered he hated gangsters in the middle of filming. But, since gangsters were a central part of the tale, he toned down the comedic element of the characters and brought the movie more to his liking.

Despite the fact that Shoot the Piano Player was lauded by commentators, the film failed at the box office. Truffaut never tried as heavily as the film focused on two of the French New Wave's most popular features, American film noir and themselves.

Truffaut's third film, Jules and Jim, a romantic drama starring Jeanne Moreau, was released in 1962. The film was extremely popular and attracted a following.

Truffaut was invited to direct Bonnie and Clyde in 1963, by Esquire journalists David Newman and Robert Benton, whose aim was to bring the French New Wave to Hollywood. Though Truffaut was keen enough to assist in script creation, he eventually declined, but not before starring Jean-Luc Godard and American actor and would-be producer Warren Beatty, who went on to direct Arthur Penn.

The Soft Skin (1964), Truffaut's fourth film, was directed. On its debut, it was not well-received.

Truffaut's first non-French film was a 1966 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic science fiction book Fahrenheit 451, showcasing Truffaut's love of books. Truffaut's first English-speaking film, shot on location in England, was a huge challenge for him because he barely spoke English. This was Truffaut's first film in color, shot by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg. Truffaut's larger-scale operation was difficult, considering that the company was limited to small crews and budgets. A scene with lead actor Oscar Werner, who was dissatisfied with his appearance and stormed off set, was also tense, causing Truffaut to fire scenes from behind using a body double shot from behind. Truffaut never returned to France after the film was a commercial failure, and the film never recovered outside France. The film's fame has steadily grown, but some commentators remain suspicious of it as a ripoff. Charles Silver's film The film is praised in a 2014 review.

Stolen Kisses (1968) was a sequel to the Antoine Doinel Cycle, starring Claude Jade as Antoine's fiancée and later wife Christine Darbon. Truffaut fell in love with Jade and was briefly engaged to her during filming. It was a big hit on the international art circuit. Jade made her Hollywood debut in Hitchcock's Topaz a short time later.

Truffaut worked on various projects. The Bride Wore Black (1968), a brutal tale of revenge, is a chic homage to Alfred Hitchcock's films (once more starring Moreau). Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo's 1969 film Mermaid (1969) is an identity-bending romantic drama. Both films are based on Cornell Woolrich's novels.

Truffaut's debut in the lead role of 18th-century physician Jean Marc Gaspard Itard was included in the Wild Child (1970).

Bed and Board (1970) was another Antoine Doinel film, this time with Jade, now Léaud's on-screen-wife.

As "Jules et Jim," two English Girls (1971) is the female representation of the same love tale "Jules et Jim." It is based on a story by Henri-Pierre Roché, who wrote Jules and Jim, about a man who falls in love with two sisters and their love affair over a period of years.

Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972) was a screwball comedies that was not well received.

Truffaut was named Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee on Day for Night by the Academy of Motion. The film is arguably his most reflective work. It's the story of a film crew struggling to finish a film while dealing with the personal and professional challenges that accompany making a film. Truffaut is the producer of the fictional film being made. Scenes from his previous films are included in this film. It is regarded as his best film since his inception. Time magazine ranked it on its list of the 100 Best Films of the Century (along with The 400 Blows).

Truffaut made more notoriety in 1975 with The Story of Adèle H.; Isabelle Adjani in the title role was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Small Change, his 1976 film, was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

A minor hit in 1977, A Man Who Loved Women (1977), a romantic comedy, was a minor hit.

Truffaut appeared in Steven Spielberg's 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind as scientist Claude Lacombe.

Truffaut was the lead in the Green Room (1978) in the lead. It was a box-office flop, so he made Love on the Run (1979), starring Léaud and Jade as the final movie of the Doinel Cycle.

Truffaut's last films gave him a worldwide revival. The Last Metro (1980) received 12 César Award nominations and ten awards, including Best Director.

Truffaut's last film was shot in black and white, giving his career the appearance of having bookends. Hitchcock is Truffaut's tribute to his favorite director. It addresses several Hitchcockian topics, including personal responsibility versus public knowledge, a woman investigating a murder, and anonymous locations.

Truffaut's adaptations included two novels by Henri-Pierre Roché, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Henry James' "The Altar of the Dead," filmed as The Green Room, and several American detective novels.

Truffaut's other films were from original screenplays, which often were co-written by the screenwriters Suzanne Schiffman or Jean Gruault. They included diverse topics, including the sombre The Story of Adèle H., a film about the ups and downs of filmmaking, with Isabelle Adjani; Day for Night, shot at the Victorine Studios depicting the ups and downs of filmmaking; and The Last Metro, a film that was nominated by ten César Awards for France during World War II.

Truffaut, a lifelong cinephile, threw a hitchhiker out of his vehicle after finding out that he didn't like films.

Many filmmakers respect Truffaut, and tributes to his work have appeared in films including Almost Famous, Face and The Butterfly, as well as novelist Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.

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