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A Companion to François Truffaut
“An unprecedented critical tribute to the director who, in France, wound up becoming the most controversial figure of the New Wave he helped found.” “This exciting collection breaks through the widely-held critical view that Truffaut abandoned the iconoclasm of his early work for an academicism he had consistently railed against in his own film criticism. Indeed, if ‘fever’ and ‘fire’ were Truffaut's most consistent motifs, the essays in this collection live up to his life-long, burning passion for the cinema. Written by world-famous scholars, the essays exhaustively explore the themes and styles of the films, as well as Truffaut's relationships to Andre Bazin, Alfred Hitchcock, and the directors of the New Wave, his ground-breaking and controversial film criticism, and his position in the complex politics of French cultural life from the Popular Front to 1968 and after.”
Raymond Bellour, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Angelo Restivo, Georgia State University
Dudley Andrew (Edited by), D Andrew (Author), Anne Gillain (Edited by)
9781405198479, Wiley
Hardback, published 5 April 2013
640 pages
24.9 x 17.5 x 3 cm, 1.293 kg
"A superb compendium of 34 critical essays on the late French film director ... Truffaut's deeply human and penetrating films come alive for the reader. A splendid 'companion' offering fresh insight and thoughtful analysis on every page. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above." (Choice, 1 September 2013)
A Companion to François Truffaut “An unprecedented critical tribute to the director who, in France, wound up becoming the most controversial figure of the New Wave he helped found.” “This exciting collection breaks through the widely held critical view that Truffaut abandoned the iconoclasm of his early work for an academicism he had consistently railed against in his own film criticism. Indeed, if ‘fever’ and ‘fire’ were Truffaut’s most consistent motifs, the essays in this collection live up to his lifelong, burning passion for the cinema. Written by world-famous scholars, the essays exhaustively explore the themes and styles of the films, as well as Truffaut’s relationships to André Bazin, Alfred Hitchcock, and the directors of the New Wave, his ground-breaking and controversial film criticism, and his position in the complex politics of French cultural life from the Popular Front to 1968 and after.” Although the New Wave, one of the most influential aesthetic revolutions in the history of cinema, might not have existed without him, François Truffaut has largely been ignored by film scholars since his death almost thirty years ago. As an innovative theoretician, an influential critic, and a celebrated filmmaker, Truffaut formulated, disseminated, and illustrated the ideals of the New Wave with exceptional energy and distinction. Yet no book in recent years has focused on Truffaut’s value, and his overall contribution to cinema deserves to be redefined not only to reinstate him in his proper place but to let us rethink how cinema developed during his lifetime. In this new Companion, thirty-four original essays by leading film scholars offer new readings of individual films and original perspectives on the filmmaker’s background, influences, and consequence. Hugely influential around the globe, Truffaut is assessed by international contributors who delve into the unique quality of his narratives and establish the depth of his distinctively styled work. An extended interview with French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin tracks Truffaut’s controversial stature within French cinema and vividly identifies how he thinks and works as a director, adding an irreplaceable perspective to this essential volume.
Raymond Bellour, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Angelo Restivo, Georgia State University
Acknowledgments viii Notes on Contributors ix Preface xv Filmography xxiii Part I La Planète Truffaut 1 1. Interview with Arnaud Desplechin, Part I: Truffaut and His Position 3 2. Truffaut and His “Doubles” 23 3. Aesthetic Affinities: François Truffaut, Patrick Modiano, Douglas Sirk 71 4. Interview with Arnaud Desplechin, Part II: Truffaut and His Methods 105 Part II Style and Sensibility 125 5. Flashes of Happiness 127 6. Truffaut and the Photographic: Cinema, Fetishism, Death 137 7. The Impasse of Intimacy: Romance and Tragedy in Truffaut’s Cinema 153 8. A Fine Madness: Digressions on Pathologies in Truffaut’s Films 173 9. The Ecstatic Pan 184 10. The Untimely Moment and the Correct Distance 205 Part III The Making of a Filmmaker 219 11. Every Teacher Needs a Truant: Bazin and L’Enfant sauvage 221 12. Certain Tendencies of Truffaut’s Film Criticism 242 13. Truffaut–Hitchcock 265 14. The Paradox of “Familiarity”: Truffaut, Heir of Renoir 283 15. Cain and Abel: Godard and Truffaut 300 16. Friction, Failure, and Fire: Truffaut as Adaptive Auteur 317 Part IV Truffaut and His Time 333 17. Growing Up with the French New Wave 335 18. Bad Objects: Truffaut’s Radicalism 356 19. Between Renoir and Hitchcock: The Paradox of Truffaut’s Women 375 20. Truffaut in the Mirror of Japan 388 Part V Films 401 21. Directing Children: The Double Meaning of Self-Consciousness 403 22. Jules et Jim … et Walter Benjamin 420 23. Digging Up the Past: Jules et Jim 434 24. The Elevator and the Telephone: On Urgency in La Peau douce 448 25. La Peau douce: A Psychogeography of Silky Cinephilia 454 26. La Peau douce: François Truffaut’s Passionate Object 469 27. An Unsettling Passage: From Les Deux Anglaises et le continent to La Chambre verte 489 28. The Structural Role of Intervals in L’Argent de poche 507 29. To Die or to Love: Modern Don Juans in Truffaut and Oliveira 517 30. Film as Literature: or the Truffaldian Malaise (L’Homme qui aimait les femmes) 530 31. The Elegist: François Truffaut inside La Chambre verte 546 32. La Chambre verte and the Beating Heart of Truffaut’s Oeuvre 561 33. Le Dernier Métro: An Underground Golden Coach 571 34. Disillusionment and Magic in La Nuit américaine and Le Dernier Métro 584 Index 594
Anne Gillain and Dudley Andrew
Martin Lefebvre
Anne Gillain
Anne Gillain and Dudley Andrew
Alain Bergala
Junji Hori
John Orr
Francis Vanoye
Phil Powrie
Adrian Martin
Dudley Andrew
Richard Neupert
Jonathan Everett Haynes
Ludovic Cortade
Michel Marie
Timothy Corrigan
James Tweedie
Sam Di Iorio
Ginette Vincendeau
Kan Nozaki
Angela Dalle Vacche
Dudley Andrew
Elizabeth Ezra
Michel Chion
Tom Conley
Hilary Radner
Carlos Losilla
Alain Bergala
Luiza Jatobá
Lúcia Nagib
Philip Watts
Françoise Zamour
Jean-Michel Frodon
Marc Vernet
Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF]
