François Truffaut: In love with the cinema

Created: 02/06/2022, 08:00

By: Mayls Majurani

François Truffaut filming The Sweet Skin in 1963. © Brazilian National Archives

François Truffaut was one of the greatest filmmakers and lovers of all time.

He would have turned 90 on Sunday.

In the "New York Times Magazine" in 1969, François Truffaut was described as "homo cinematicus", as a person who subordinates all his interests to the cinema.

In fact, the art of film was Truffaut's greatest passion - and he had a lasting influence on it as one of the pioneers of the Nouvelle Vague.

He would have turned 90 on Sunday if he hadn't died much too early in 1984 from the effects of a brain tumor.

Truffaut was born in Paris in 1932 and did not have a particularly happy childhood, parts of which he later processed in his debut work "They kissed and they beat him".

He regularly skipped school and smuggled himself into a cinema – he often had no money for tickets.

As a teenager, he was a regular guest at the French cinematheque.

In 1948 he met André Bazin, probably the most important film theorist in the world, who later freed him from financial and criminal difficulties several times, for example when the soldier Truffaut was caught attempting to desert and arrested in 1950.

Bazin used his connections to free him and gave him a job at his legendary film magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma.

"They kissed and they hit him": The birth of the Nouvelle Vague

From then on, Truffaut made a name for himself as an uncompromising and tough film critic.

In his essay "A Certain Tendency in French Film" he settled accounts with entertainment productions and called for more freedom for directors.

The essay enabled him and a generation of independent cinephiles to make films.

With his directorial debut "They kissed and they beat him" (1959) - if you ignore Agnès Varda's first work "La Pointe Courte" (1955) - the Nouvelle Vague was born.

Other masterpieces followed, such as Jules and Jim (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and The Wolf Boy (1970).

Love plays an important role in Truffaut's films.

His stories almost always revolve around the relationship between one or more women and one or more men.

One of his films is even called The Man Who Loved Women.

Truffaut followed the later love life of Antoine Doinel, the main character from "They kissed and they beat him", in four other works for over 19 years.

François Truffaut: The man who loved the movies

But his own love was for the art of film itself.

It is not uncommon for his characters to go to the cinema, in "Love on the Run" from the Antoine Doinel cycle, another Truffaut film is even shown in the cinema: "A Beautiful Girl Like Me".

The hearty comedy "The American Night" tells about the shooting of the fictional film "Je vous presente Pamela".

It's probably the best making-of film of a strip that doesn't exist.

Truffaut played the role of director himself.

Speaking of love for the art of film: the influence of the “Master of Suspense” can also be felt in many films.

Truffaut adored Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he conducted a 50-hour interview, entitled "Mr.

Hitchcock, how did you do that?” appeared.

His last film "On Love and Death" (1983) was stylistically almost indistinguishable from a Hitchcock film.

"The bride wore black" was also a homage to the great master.

Truffaut made good films for 25 years.

He never did a bad one.

Even today, his way of telling stories influences many great directors, such as Martin Scorsese.

Truffaut never lost his lightness and childish playfulness behind the camera.

This loyalty to himself makes him one of the most extraordinary directors of all time.