Francois Truffaut: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Ronald Bergan (Editor), François Truffaut

The French New Wave was one of the most seismic events in cinema's history, and among its contributors Francois Truffaut (1932-1984) was a key figure. Along with Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and others, Truffaut helped to form the New Wave\'s aesthetics and vision and was the first to conceptualize the auteur theory. He made films that reflected his three professed passions: a love of cinema, an interest in the difficulties of male-female relationships, and a fascination with the problems of children. As this collection of interviews progresses, we follow Truffaut's creative evolution almost as much as we follow his alter-ego Antoine Doinel (actor Jean-Pierre Leaud) through Truffaut\'s semi-autobiographical series that begins with his first feature "The 400 Blows" (1959) and ends with "Love on the Run" (1978). Truffaut, a perceptive film critic for "Cahiers du Cinema" before becoming a director, was able to be objective about his own and other people's films. Always concerned with the process as well as the product of his profession, Truffaut maintained his role as critic and commentator throughout his career and remained equally as good an interviewer as an interviewee. Ronald Bergan is the author of several books on film, including biographies of directors Francis Ford Coppola, Jean Renoir, Sergei Eisenstein, and the Coen brothers.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ronald Bergan is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the author of several critically acclaimed books on film, including biographies of directors Francis Ford Coppola, Jean Renoir, Sergei Eisenstein, and the Coen brothers.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of interviews that covers most of Truffaut's greatest films, including the likes of Jules et Jim, Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows), Shoot the Piano Player, and, my personal favourite, La peau douce (The Soft Skin), as well as his thoughts on cinema in general at that particular time, other French directors like Bresson & Godard, Hitchcock, and his acting role (albeit brief) in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[Aynaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

کاش می تونستم همه ی آدم های زندگیم و همه ی چیزهایی که توی زندگیم وجود دارند رو به همون اندازه ای که تروفو سینمارو دوست داشت,دوست داشته باشم.همین.

[Mehrnaz]

Light and joyful, like François himself.

[Mohammad Mahdi Safi · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک کتاب خوب برای شناخت جامع و بهتر تروفو...

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

"این کتاب از مجموعه «گفتگو با کارگردانان» منتشر شده و دربردارنده مصاحبه‌هایی با فرانسوا تروفو(۱۹۸۴-۱۹۳۲)، کارگردان فرانسوی است که از سوی رونالد برگن(نویسنده و روزنامه‌نگار) گردآوری شده است. در بخشی از گفت و گوی «گوردن گاو» در 1972 برای مجله «فیلم و فیلمینگ» می‌خوانیم: «پس از این‌که در ۱۹۵۹، نخستین فیلم سینمایی بلند فرانسوا تروفو، "چهارصد ضرب" در نگاه تماشاگران به هشداری درباره‌ی کودکان فراموش‌شده تبدیل شد، او در تغییر رویکردی ناگهانی به سمت گانگسترهای افسارگسیخته رفت و "پارودی به پیانیست شلیک کن" را ساخت. سرک‌کشیدن به حوزه‌های متفاوت و گاه متضاد هم‌چنان در سراسر دوران کاری او قابل ردیابی است. تنها ریسمان محکم و ناگسستنی موجود در آثار او به زندگی پیشرونده‌ی آنتوان دوآنل، همان نوجوان خلافکار چهارصد ضربه مربوط می‌شود که در طول این سال‌ها با بزرگ‌شدن ژان پیر لئو به شیوه‌یی صادقانه روایت شده است. با وجود این، حتا این روایت دنباله‌دار، علی‌رغم شباهت‌های سبک‌شناسانه‌ی ذاتی و پیوندهای تماتیک اجتناب‌ناپذیر، به شکل قابل توجهی متنوع و متفاوت است. تروفو پس از "دو دختر انگلیسی"، این اواخر "بچه‌ی باحالی مثل من" را به اتمام رسانده است و شخصا اعتقاد دارد این فیلم از نظر آزادی در شیوه‌ی ‌پرداخت به سبک مورد علاقه‌ی او در به پیانیست شلیک کن، بیش‌ترین شباهت را دارد»."

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is part of a University of Mississippi Press series where previously published interviews with a given filmmaker are compiled, and those not originally in English are translated into English. Some of the volumes in this series abound in interesting trivia and exclusive details, but this one on François Truffaut is nothing special.

The interviews span 1960 to 1981, with some significant gaps. There is no interview from around the time of Jules et Jim, the reputation of which is now massive, though Truffaut makes some comments about that film here and there in later interviews. That 1981 (the release of Le dernier metro) is the endpoint means we get nothing about his last two features.

Even when films are covered, the interview formats here are largely unconducive to detail, that is, many of the interviews are drawn from newspapers articles where there isn’t room for much, and Truffaut’s comments to the journalist are abridged and often not even direct quotations. Thus, even though L'Histoire d'Adèle H. gets two interviews here, after the fawning over that new star Isabelle Adjani and some background on the life of Adèle Hugo, we don’t read much on the film itself.

Truffaut fans would therefore be better directed to the more substantial biographical publications on this filmmaker. The one film for which this collection might hold exclusive details (I’m not entirely sure) is L’argent de poche.

[David Sterritt]

“François Truffaut: Interviews” doesn’t stand out among the volumes I’ve read in UP of Mississippi’s useful Conversations with Filmmakers series; some of the translations are clunky and there’s at least one big factual error (Philippe Pinel was a hugely important psychologist, not a journalist!). But anything that involves the amazingly gifted and tragically short-lived François is automatically of interest, and the book provides an engaging first-hand portrait of his views on life, love, and movies.

[Lee Bullitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'adore Francois Truffaut.
I have not seen enough of his films, which is to say, I have not seen them all. I want to study him and his works, because his style and his insights are amazing. I think (and know) that he is a very gifted person, which is even more important than him being a gifted director.

I am completely fascinated by La Nouvelle Vague. It changed the way I thought about film and it really inspired me to make films. (What inspired me most of all was the dreamers, which was actually based around the ceniphiles that came about due to The New Wave.) Truffaut was one of the leading directors of the nouvelle vague and yet, has a style very different form his french counterparts.

It was great getting to know him and the choices he made in this way.