François Truffaut, to my mind was the greatest director of the French New Wave era. As a director, he created over 20 films as well as being an actor, a producer and a screenwriter. This is in no way a close look at any one in particular, more of an overview of my personal favourites, I will come back to each one individually later.
Truffaut's approach to filmmaking involved becoming truly immersed in his films. This can be seen most specifically in his relationship with Jean-Pierre Léaud with whom he created the Antoine Doinel series which documented the life of the young Antoine from 'Les Quatre cent coups', more commonly known as 'The 400 Blows', to 'Antoine et Colette' (this was part of a larger series - L'Amour a vingt ans'), 'Baisers volés', 'La Domicile Conjugal' and finally 'L'amour en fuite'.
Les Quatre cent coups is considered to be one of the first new wave films but is not as famous as Godard's world-renowned 'À bout de souffle' (for which Truffaut was the scriptwriter) arguably the film considered to have initiated the French new wave.
Truffaut's other work included 'Jules et Jim', the story of a love triangle with Jeanne Moreau at the heart of it and 'L'histoire de Adele H' starring a young Isabelle Adjani, in which she plays Adèle Hugo, daughter of French playwright Victor Hugo.
My favourite of all his films has to be ' La sirene du Mississippi' which stars Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Yves Saint Laurent costume throughout.
Perhaps the most touching of all his films is 'L'enfant Sauvage' in which Truffaut stars as one of the lead characters. A kind of 'Jungle book' esque story about a little boy found in the woods, deemed socially inept and is taken in by Dr Jean Marc Gaspard Itard played by Truffaut and taught how to behave within society.
Here is a simple collection of movie posters, trailers and pictures of the very handsome Truffaut at work.
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