Francois Truffaut-let's get talking...

Among higherbrow critics, I think the reverse. Many suggest nowadays it was all downhill from 400B.

Aside from Stolen Kisses, I'mI like a couple he played the lead in, The Green Room and The Wild Child.

i agree, only I'm definitely more aligned with godard.

it should be fun... i havent seen many of his later films and i have no problem bashing films in a classroom setting. maybe i will be seen as the resident film snob.

also, i really didnt like jules et jim.

around here too, it looks like. i'll proudly wave the flag for 400 blows, antoine & collette, stolen kisses, jules et jim, day for night, etc. he has his duds, too, but who doesn't.

And don't forget about Les Mistons!

"Stolen Kisses" notwithstanding, I'm not fond of anything Jean-Pierre Leaud stars in. Or maybe I just find Leaud such a boring adult after being such a vivid kid.

I’ve been checking out the catalog in fits and starts. I got into Day for Night (a picture I can’t say enough good things about) and the Doinel cycle summer before last. Then I received the Criterion versions of STPP and J&J (not to mention Masculin Feminin) for x-mas last year, and I finally got around to watching those editions this summer. STPP is still simply amazing. I actually had to pause J&J about 20 minutes in to catch my breath. Screw the characters (as fine as they are), this film has gotta be one of best “Look At Me!” showboating director’s films ever made. The sheer technique is just nuts. It’s gearhead heaven.

This viewing finally made me seek out Two English Girls, which (along w/the other Fox Lorber Truffaut titles, plus My Life To Live) is apparently OOP in the states right now. I got a hold of it though, and found the film to be quite lovely. Also, since it’s less showy, it cuts a bit deeper with me than J&J. After viewing it, I went to a used bookstore, where I was surprised to find a few remaindered copies of Truffaut’s correspondence. I bought a copy and have been dipping into it ever since.

I mention all this because yesterday 4 (unseen by me) Truffaut films (Wild Child, Adele H, Small Change, and The Green Room) arrived in my mailbox. I plan to watch ‘em over the next couple of weeks. I might report back.

Anybody got anything they want to add?

So, of course there’s an Amazon sale: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_4308262_4/105-0869837-3948434?ie=UTF8&docId=312611

Which is missing a couple essentials—namely Adele and Fahrenheit 451.

Has anybody seen Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me? It’s a comedy-noir that Truffaut did in ‘72 with Bernadette Lafont that apparently was never put out on video or DVD in the states. It looks…interesting.

i went to see Jules et Jim last night. i think it's the third time i have seen it and each time i seem to forget that, aside from the first 30 minutes, i just find it gets increasingly boring. after about 45 minutes my boredom heightens into intense irritation and by thirty minutes from the end it develops into pure hatred. the film making itself has some real vigour and there are some genuinely funny parts in the first third but overall, gah: intensely unsympathetic and unbelievable characters and it is so repetitive but without any of the illumination that the repetitive technique can engender.

it's my own fault though, how can i watch a film 3 times and forget how much i dislike it? i dare say that ten years from now i'll watch it again having forgotten again.

Maybe you'll like in ten years? BTW, have you seen Two English Girls? It's a more considered and balanced version of a Roche novel. And Adele H is a terrific companion to both.

Funny, I dug out my copy of the correspondence book and thumbed through it for about an hour the other day. Really interesting stuff. The local MFA is doing a weekend double-feature presentation of 400 Blows & Bergman's Summer With Monika at the end of this month. I may rescreen some of his other features as a warm-up. I haven't seen any "new to me" Truffaut films since my post upthread from 10/06. I've been putting off watching The Man Who Loved Women and Mississppi Mermaid for some time now. Those, plus Such A Gorgeous... and the final three are all I've yet to see.

The Green Room is quietly powerful, though it helps a little if you know something about Truffaut's background when you go into it.

Looking back over the thread, I wonder how t0dd swiss liked that class he took?

Have any of you been reading this: http://notcoming.com/features/truffaut
Great overview of the guy's whole career ... (i contributed, but don't let that stop you from checking it out)

Oh wow. Thanks for the link. I'll probably be chipping away at those essays for the next few weeks.

Since my last post, I've seen Mississippi Mermaid and Confidentially Yours!. Both of these are considered homages , but I think Truffaut wasn't enough of a misanthrope to really "do" Hitchcock. MM is kinda underrated IMHO, I hate to again invoke the "G"-word but to me it comes off like his Pierrot le fou faithless love on the run epic. Given the backstory on both, I think it's funny that Truffaut made his break-up movie w/Deneuve before they were actually involved.

I've had the Criterion Last Metro for awhile now, still haven't found the right time to watch it.

yeah, i thought i had seen a ton of Truffaut, but there are a bunch I've yet to get to. A lot of the 70s stuff is hard to come by in the states it seems. I like Mississippi Mermaid -- it's a great looking film, and worth seeing on the big screen if you get a chance. Haven't seen Confidentially Yours ... good? I do like Fanny Ardant quite a bit, despite some horrible movies I've seen her in.

Those late Truffuat-Ardant films are handsome bores.

the one i reviewed is the Woman Next Door, and yeah, it's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. I thought it was funnier than it should be.

Confidentially Yours! is...ok I guess. It's a old-fashioned detective story in modern drag. You could in a way see it as a finger-waving response to the Cinema du look crowd--shot in black & white, very old school storytelling pace. There's a seemingly tacked on epilogue I'm not crazy about. But I think what hurts it most is that it was his last movie and you wish he could have gone out with a stone classic. On that same note, Ardent is appealing and I can't help but think where that creative collaboration could have gone. It's not horrible though--just not top-drawer Truffaut.

As for finding the 70s stuff in the US, most of it I think is out of print. MGM has remaindered their titles (Adele H, Small Change, TMWLW) but I think they're still findable cheap but they don't always look so hot. The Green Room never got out on DVD here (IIRC it's still cheap on VHS). Warners got Day For Night out of legal limbo so it's easy to find again. The Fox Lorber stuff is all OOP. Criterion's got the Doinels locked up in their box set and they may rescue the others at some point. Such A Gorgeous... is owned by Sony and a long time ago online I asked a guy who worked for them what was up and he felt Criterion might pick it up someday.

"Handsome bores" is a good way to put it.

MM is kinda underrated IMHO
I grew to like this one, but I used to have a VHS of it so I had the the opportunity to watch it many times and see what he was getting at, the same way I grew to like Fassbinder's Chinese Roulette.

Just glanced at the front page of the url tylerw linked to- looks pretty good.

Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me wins, since it was a movie I'd never even *heard* of until this Not Coming series ... Review makes it sound fairly bizarre: http://notcoming.com/reviews/suchagorgeouskid/

The whole Not Coming site is awesome btw ... might skew a bit academic at times, but it's far and away my fave film site. (and not just because a few friends write/edit for it)

As a Jamesian I was really excited to see The Green Room....zzz....

They're mentioned earlier in the thread, but I was stunned by how good "Adele H.," "Day for Night," and especially "The Wild Child" were.

finally saw stolen kisses, really sweet film
two english girls & story of adele h. underrated imo (or maybe they are rated just fine, truffaut isn't exactly hip these days so don't really hear much discussion about his films)

for me truffaut is the most compassionate & humanistic director, which renders comparisons to godard pointless, since his style is basically antithetical to this.

the doinel cycle in particular, is one of the most important pieces of art that the film form has produced imo. maybe not revolutionary, but the most complete depiction of a character i've seen in film (maybe not THE most), and its meta-qualities (biographical nature of the story, relationship between leaud/truffaut) make it the most complete, wholly realized example of auteurship.

and therefore truffaut is the best new wave director. :o

i think truffaut was as you say the most empathetic director of the new wave, the most humanistic. there is a great letter from truffaut to godard criticizing godard's many hypocrisies including the way in which godard presented himself as a marxist, but couldn't even be civil to his friends.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000076/board/thread/37135203?d=37994599&p=1

sort of an unintelligible translation, but interesting still. i like the part where godard is a misogynist! hilarious.

i liked 'the soft skin' a lot, though the end is like 'fat girl'-level of tonal shift

His stock has steadily risen over the years (being dead helps of course)

rip Charles McCain, up there in heaven talking with truffaut

rip Charles McCain, up there in heaven talking with truffaut

Wait, waht? I'm not dead yet. In fact, I'll be presenting a Kinks poll on ILM in early 2012.

As for my "Stock risen/being dead" line, what I meant was that he passed away before he got a chance to really start sucking, and so that has only helped his filmography, which is unburdened by any late '80s-onward clunkers. I have a feeling he was growing into such a fuddyduddy kinda-sorta reactionary that wouldn't have weathered those years well.

boy is The Story of Adele H good. Just the banality of watching Adjani ordering pen and paper at the stationary store and her interaction with the clerk.

Criterion shared this pic of Truffaut & Bunuel (on the set of Tristana?) today:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/p206x206/206044_10152427689270565_1744987658_n.jpg

re: Adele H--I really like the sequence when she's been trailing Pinson with his society girlfriend, and she's sneaked onto the woman's estate, following the couple as they pass by windows in the house. Adjani communicates this intense level of disgust just by running and staring.

Adjani was magnificent in that film. So beautiful and batshit insane. You can't keep your eyes off her. I can see why Truffaut was smitten.

As a gay man, I have more authority than most of you to claim that Adjani was one of the most sexiest women in the world as Adele.

I ain't gay but I sure agree with you haha!

I have a thing for bookish, slightly manic brunettes with porcelain skin who write on foolscap : )

less authority, as it turns out, over adverbs

Jeanne Moreau is 85 today!

Who remembers that for 2 years she was married to William Friedkin?

*raises hand*

Didn't know it was two years though.

In that famous Biskind book, there's a story about the newlyweds seeing Star Wars together the week before Sorcerer opened.

Has anybody seen Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me? It’s a comedy-noir that Truffaut did in ‘72 with Bernadette Lafont that apparently was never put out on video or DVD in the states. It looks…interesting.

― The Homeliness of The Long Distance Punner (Charles McCain), Tuesday, February 6, 2007 4:59 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

watched this. it's not good. not familiar w/ lafont but her character (& it's basically a character study of her) is painfully unconvincing, a manipulative sexpot who is so transparent i can only assume truffaut wants us to think every male on screen is 100% brainless & deserve their collective commuppance for each using her in their own way? which, idk, fine but im not sure the point.

Gotta remember to see what's up TCM tomorrow, since I've so far forgotten every Friday.

ya ive grabbed a lot

tmrw im recording day for night, last metro, wild child - never seen any of them!

seen the first and last of these, even stayed at the hotel in Nice where Day for Night was filmed.

RIP Bernadette Lafont ; (

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jul/26/bernadette-lafont

Always one of my fave New Wave actors - and the most gorgeous IMHO.

^^Truth. Her first scene of Chabrol's A Double Tour-- http://31.media.tumblr.com/d3b9055f8e0ea5cb0e69db6a5620edcd/tumblr_mk6lzwvM7W1s5fvgyo1_250.gif

i realize i mustve known her from les bonnes femmes hm yea i liked her there

Criterion Blu-Ray of The Soft Skin looks good.

The DVD supplements are great! Lots about Hitch's influence on Truffaut, and Chabrol gets in a great dig about TSS's particularly inappropriate nod to Notorious (if you've seen both films, you probably remember the scene).

Found the film itself a minor letdown, though. The first hour, in particular, is terrifically paced, and the nods to Hitchcock kept me on my toes, at least until I figured out exactly where the film was going, but Truffaut's clear dislike of the two lead characters becomes an increasingly difficult obstacle to overcome. Truffaut himself seemed mildly dissatisfied with the film for this very reason, even pretty much saying so in the interview conducted around the time of the film's release that's included on the disc.

agree

Okay but when is Two English Girls getting released on Criterion I'm ready

He's a bore, but an interesting bore.

Last night saw one of the few Truffaut films I'd never seen before, La Chambre vert (1978). Per its reputation, moribund, lugubrious, and possessed of only the feeblest narrative drive; obviously, I liked it very much.

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otm

After a terrific opening fifteen minutes introducing the couple's environs, as cheerfully unrealistic as Jean Renoir's late films, Bed and Board gets weird, cute, and arch. Every scene with Doinel's Japanese mistress is terrible.

I don't know how I still haven't seen any Doinel films beyond The 400 Blows and the short.

Diminishing returns.

Stolen Kisses is pretty damn good.

Yes.

Very much so. I *like* the diminishing returns

Mississippi Mermaid better than I remembered but still about 30 mins too long. I kept thinking, "Chabrol would've tightened this shit."

surprised to see that this is the only Truffaut thread, with less than 100 posts

I think he's lacking in most things that draw people to the nouvelle vague - radical politics, youth culture cool...there's some experimental stuff in his early work but mostly he's quite a conventional filmmaker, narratively speaking. A lot of this could be applied to Rohmer as well but he's a more unique flavour.

That being said, dude did a lot of great movies!

_Mississippi Mermaid_ better than I remembered but still about 30 mins too long. I kept thinking, "Chabrol would've tightened this shit."

going back again chronologically I’ve only made it through Fahrenheit 451 so far. That film seems kind of bad to me, but I thought The 400 Blows, Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, and The Soft Skin were all pretty great

re: Bed and Board, "Every scene with Doinel's Japanese mistress is terrible." I was fascinated by those scenes

Day For Night, as a film about the making of a film and the deceptions and pretentiousness involved while at the same time showing the extreme flaws of the producers, actors and crew, was fascinating

Still need to catch that one.

Saw Jules and Jim on the big screen for the first time tonight. Conclusions:
1. It’s absolutely a masterpiece
2. Detractors are correct that the first half far outshines the second half, which gets slightly boring and circular
3. It might be retitled ‘Two Guys and a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.’ Jeanne Moreau’s character is an obvious narcissist, though no one in the film ever uses the n-word

it's definitely a foundational text for the mpdg phenomenon

Think maybe I first paid attention to Jeanne Moreau in Louis Malle’s Viva Maria!

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