Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-03-13
Truffaut's always been a favourite director of mine so it's especially interesting to read his take on other peoples' films.
A movie buff's dream bedside-table, dip-into-it-for-fun book.......2004-03-30
Originally published 1975. 358 pages including index, contents and short list of Truffaut's films.
I refuse to write this review after i've finished the entire book, because i refuse to admit that one day there could be no more of it to read. This is a film buff's dream book. Truffaut was a great filmmaker - his 400 Blows is one of the most beautifully told simple stories of adolescence ever. A sensitive, personal film. His film criticism, if possible, is better than his films. Truffaut had such a love for cinema, and this passion comes across in his writing more so than in his films.
This book is great to just dip into. It is a collection of essays, published and unpublished, expressing his opinion in a playful, fun, yet always intelligent way, of various individual films and entire careers. Included are pieces on the body of work of Chaplin, Welles, Jean Vigo, Jean Renoir, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Frank Capra, Bunuel, Bergman, Fellini, Rossellini, plus many short subjects on individual films by many French new wave filmmakers (Resnais's Night and Fog and Muriel, Vadim's And God Created Woman, Godard's My Life to Live and All Boys... Patrick, as well as some Bresson, Guitry, Tati, Melville, Dassin, Becker, Clouzot and a few others) and American directors of talkies mainly from the 40's and 50's (including Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Kubrick's Paths of Glory, Laughton's Night of the Hunter, Lumet's 12 Angry Men, Barefoot Contessa, Bounjour Tristesse and more).
Truffaut died in 1984, and this book was published in 1975 in english, but it doesn't talk about any movie after 1960 (i think), so bear that in mind - this is a chronicle of that period of cinema, which i wasn't that interested in when i bought the book, but it very quickly cultivated an interest in me. So even if you don't know much about movies before 1960, you'll find this book fascinating, and perhaps even inspiring.
Wonderful for film buffs.......2000-11-26
I read this entire book on a flight from London back to the U.S. When I got home, I rented/watched several of the movies mentioned by Truffaut (Rear Window, etc.) watching for the points he made. Many people don't know Truffaut was a journalist as well as a filmmaker. He was able to write as desriptively as his films were imaginative. My only complaint is that this is a book for serious film fans who have already seen the movies he reviews. If you haven't seen the films, his comments aren't referential enough to include you. But, that said, it will help you see many titles in a new way.
A marvelous realization of how Francois Truffaut views film........1998-07-17
A film critic and director, Francois Truffaut, brings the reader into an almost literary expositon on films and how they affect us. He takes film beyond its bounds by noting the joys and sorrows directors have put into their creations. Truffaut, as a great director himself, discusses directors and actors like Hitchcock, Renoir, Bergman, Kazin, Welles, Wilder, and many others. What impressed me about the book was the compassion Truffaut has for film making. He brings out the nuances that I failed to notice in great films. For instance, in his discussion of Citizen Kane, he brings out the parallelism between Charles Foster Kane's mother and his love for Susan Alexander by saying Alexander was areplacemnent for his separated mother. And of course rosebud and the snow dome create the crux for such parallels to show uo. In his review for Kane, he brings out such nuances that only a well-carved critic and director could do. Those out there who enjoy film and all its! ! complexities will enjoy this book. A Frenchman discovers what made such films great in so many people's eyes: Rear Window, 8 1/2, The Seven Year Itch, and many other great films. I love Truffaut, so reading what he likes and dislikes was a sheer pleasure - sumptuous at times!
Amazon.com
The mass movie audience knows him best as the sweet French scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but François Truffaut (1932-1984) made his first thunderous impact on world cinema as "that young thug of journalism." In the 1950s, as this culturally savvy biography by two French film journalists reminds us, Truffaut and a group of like-minded friends at the legendary Cahiers du Cinéma blasted traditional French film as too literary and polished. They proclaimed the birth of rougher, more personal moviemaking by "auteurs" (directors who wrote their own scripts) who were as intoxicated by the medium's possibilities as by the classic Hollywood movies these Young Turks adored. Truffaut practiced what he preached in early films like The Four Hundred Blows and Jules and Jim, which electrified a new generation of American directors who came of age in the 1960s. His private life was just as unconventional: though divorced from his first wife in 1965, they remained business associates through his many affairs with actresses (to whom he was also chronically unfaithful), and he even moved back in with her for a while when the brain tumor that ultimately killed him made it impossible to function alone. His biographers convey all this turbulent material with Gallic lucidity and toughness, seeing no need to make their subject conventionally lovable by softening his sharp edges. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
Here is the definitive story of one of the most celebrated filmmakers of our time, an intensely private individual who cultivated the public image of a man consumed by his craft. But as this absorbing biography shows, Truffaut's personal story--from which he drew extensively to create the characters and plots of his films--is itself an extraordinary human drama.
Customer Reviews:
Not definitive, but the best biography we have so far..........2004-01-09
While I share the other reviewer's enthusiasm for this excellent biography, there were some problems with the book that suggest to me that there is more to be said about Mr. Truffaut. The jumps in time throughout the book were ominous, as if the authors either didn't have enough information or didn't want to write about a particular moment in Truffaut's life. The organization of the book into short chapters with titles like "Friends First" and "The Diminished Life" some only 3 or 4 paragraphs long interrupted the flow of the narrative for me and made it hard to keep names and events clearly in my mind's eye. The biography was strongest on the early and late periods in the director's life. The long middle section felt repetitive and I found myself wandering a bit. As other reviewers have pointed out: you wont' find any exhaustive information on the making of various films in this book. I am looking forward to reading the Insdorf book for film coverage. There is an exhaustive listing of Truffaut's written works at the end of the book, but a curiously short list of books an articles on Truffaut (24 listings primarily in French). I suspect that the publishers trimmed this list considerably, so you will have to look elsewhere for a comprehensive bibliography. Despite my criticisms I enjoyed this book a great deal and it has led me back to the films which are now enhanced from reading this biography.
THE DIRECTOR WHO LOVED WOMEN.......2000-11-01
When you saw all of TRUFFAUT's films ,this book has the edge over all other books about him.It is a complete biography about a man who had a passion for making movies.It is also about a man who loved actresses and had love affairs with many of them.FRANCOIS is all over the book with his strenghts and his weaknesses.Many of his movies have autobiographical contents;STOLEN KISSES for instance show his obsession with women;The character of AZNAVOUR in SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is almost a portrait of himself;JULES AND JIM was a love triangle ,and in his private life FRANCOIS had several mistresses at the same time.His sensitive approach has also ruined a few movies like THE SOFT SKIN and THE MISSISSIPI MERMAID.As a critic he could be very rude at times ,but he was a convincing debator.Finally ,i would say that movies were really his escape from the monotomy of life ;it was his own ticket for adventure.A worthy biography ,because i learn things about him beyond gossip.
A book that delves deeply into the life of Truffaut.......2000-02-08
The book starts from before day one, describing Truffaut's conception into the world as accidental and unwanted. We see parents who were much harsher and less loving in the bio than we do in The 400 Blows. We are presented with a boy genius turned truant, turned self-hating autodidact who by the grace of some magical force is redeemed. That magical force, of course, is the beauty and wonder of film. Amid this telling, we are given a lesson in French film history. Great names like Max Ophuls, Jean Renoir, Alain Resnais, Goddard, and Cocteau. We see this young boy rise from a state of debilitating poverty to the ranks of polemical, ingenious film criticism. We are excited when this precocious film journalist rails against a heavily commercialized, stagnant film establishment, and we hold our breaths when this same critic turns director, and releases his first full length feature, The 400 Blows and wins the Cannes' Grand Jury Prize.
In this biography, the wonderful and important films that made Truffaut famous take a back seat. Instead, we see how his formative years inform his adult years in his search for love from actress, to actress, to actress. We see Truffaut's friendships and fall outs with brilliant filmmakers, and we see what goes on behind the scenes on the sets of his films. We realize, quite easily, that Truffaut the man is very special.
At the end of the book, we come away with at least a glimpse of the true essence of Truffaut--a singular genius, searching for love in life and through films; a humble creator who makes films to please no one but himself; a charming friend who prefers humor over sentimentality; and most of all, an intensely private individual who used film to articulate his deepest yearnings. Yes, Truffaut was a great film maker, but as this biography so convincingly shows, he was an even greater person.
Comprehensive and frequently touching biography.......1999-08-14
There was considerable autobiographical content to the movies of Truffaut, but they expose only a public side, frequently with a focus on male/female relations. Truffaut's childhood is exposed as sadder, but possibly less harsh than his image (and The 400 Blows) suggest. The rest of his life was lived to its fullest with many life-long friends, close working relationships and a touching continuity to his relations with the women in his life, even after the time of passion had passed. There are many references to French intellectuals and film-makers that will not be familiar to American readers and occassionally slow the book down. The description of the genesis of many of the famous movies and the time and troubles to be overcome to bring a movie to the viewer is as the best I have read. All-in-all, this is an entertaining and extremely well-written biography. The translation is seamless.
Customer Reviews:
A splendid biography about the genius of Kenosha!.......2007-09-28
Andre Bazin died pitifully months after having being released "Touch of evil" , but the impressive documentation effort , the conscientious analysis around the previous films of the prodigal son of Wisconsin, the forewords of Truffaut, make of this book a true artistic worthy to have it and reread it over and over.
Don't miss it!
Orson Welles and Magic.......2007-07-01
I have always been a fan of Orson Welles on radio and television. Having collected a ton of radio broadcasts on CD and audio cassette and having watched most of his movies, I appreciate the genius of his work. I picked up a copy of this book recently and am amazed at the amount of research put into it. An aspect of Welles rarely discussed is his magic career. At the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention this September in Aberdeen, Maryland, I plan to attend the presentation about Orson Welles and his magic career so I can watch rare footage and films with Welles, and get an even deeper insight to his trickery. Book comes recommended.
Book Description
"Richard Roud has brought to life a man as picturesque and as contradictory as a Dickens character... Thanks to Roud... a thick and well-kept-up curtain of mystery rises to reveal to us the founder of the Cinémathèque Française, a man who was both unassuming and extravagant, a fabulous man, an obsessed man, and man animated by an idée fixe, a haunted man." -- François Truffaut, from the Foreword
When Henri Langlois began collecting prints of films in the 1920s, most people -- even many in the film industry -- thought of movies as a cheap and disposable form of entertainment. Langlois recognized them as a priceless form of art and worthy of preservation. In 1935, he founded the Cinémathèque Française, the legendary film library and screening room in Paris which Jean Renoir described as "the church for movies" and Bernardo Bertolucci called "the best school of cinema in the world." Indeed, some of the world's most influential filmmakers -- including Godard, Resnais, Truffaut, Rivette, and Wenders -- learned their craft by watching the classic films Langlois devoted his life to saving from destruction and obscurity.
As Richard Roud reveals in this "affectionate, intriguing biography" (Times Literary Supplement), Langlois was a brilliant and temperamental man who could be, by turns, charming and maddening. Marvelously creative, Langlois was also so incredibly disorganized that, once the Cinémathèque became a government institution, he was dismissed as its director in 1968 by then Minister of Culture André Malraux, an action which caused Europe's eminent film personalities to protest in the street of Paris until he was reinstated. By the time of his death in 1977, Langlois's genius for rediscovering the cinema of the past (he championed the works of Abel Gance, Carl Dreyer, and Louis Feuillade when they were considered passé by his contemporaries and defended Howard Hawks against the disdain of American intellectuals) and his desire to share his discoveries with the world (at a time when other film archives refused to screen any of the films in their collection) had inspired a great and abiding love of cinema in a generation of filmgoers, leaving behind a legacy director Nicholas Ray considered "perhaps the most important individual effort ever accomplished in the history of the cinema."
Customer Reviews:
Fundamental text for all who love Jean Renoir craft!.......2004-10-31
Andre Bazin makes a meticuluous and extraordinary analysis around the entire filmography of this famous filmmaker .
There are many issues to know and we have to miss the fact Andre Bazin jus only lived forty years .
But in Francois Truffaut words , this is the most complete book about the greatest french filmmaker in the century .
In my personal opinion only two directors overpasses him in this order: Robert Bresson and Marcel Carne.
Average customer rating:
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Truffaut by Truffaut
Francois Truffaut
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810916894 |
Amazon.com
Any book-length interview with Alfred Hitchcock is valuable, but considering that this volume's interlocutor is François Truffaut, the conversation is remarkable indeed. Here is a rare opportunity to eavesdrop on two cinematic masters from very different backgrounds as they cover each of Hitch's films in succession. Though this book was initially published in 1967 when Hitchcock was still active, Truffaut later prepared a revised edition that covered the final stages of his career. It's difficult to think of a more informative or entertaining introduction to Hitchcock's art, interests, and peculiar sense of humor. The book is a storehouse of insight and witticism, including the master's impressions of a classic like Rear Window ("I was feeling very creative at the time, the batteries were well charged"), his technical insight into Psycho's shower scene ("the knife never touched the body; it was all done in the [editing]"), and his ruminations on flops such as Under Capricorn ("If I were to make another picture in Australia today, I'd have a policeman hop into the pocket of a kangaroo and yell 'Follow that car!'"). This is one of the most delightful film books in print. --Raphael Shargel
Customer Reviews:
One of three best Hitchcock books.......2007-09-08
Alfred Hitchcock rarely granted interviews. He did so only when it was required for publicity for his TV series and his movies. But in the late 1960s, French director Francois Truffaut interviewed Hitchcock at length (something like 2 or 3 hours a day for five days straight) and from a director-to-director standpoint, the book covers each and every one of Hitchcock's movies and "in-his-own-words" format. So Hitchcock is constantly commenting about his films. Truffaut thankfully, lets Hitchcock do much of the talking. There is no other book like this one and of the three must-have books on Alfred Hitchcock, this is on the top of the list.
Examples: When Truffaut asked Hitchcock why he appears at the close of the opening credits of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, the director commented that his in-joke of appearing in "almost" every movie distracted audiences spending time looking for him, shortly after the success of the TV show, hence the reason why the director made his on-screen appearances in the beginning of each of his movies after 1956, and not in the middle or end. Remember the scene in which Eva Marie Saint pulls a gun out and shoots Cary Grant towards the end of the picture? Hitchcock commented that a blooper is in that scene. A young boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears BEFORE she pulls the gun out of the purse. When Truffaut commented that Hitchcock won his only Oscar for Rebecca, which won the Academy Award for best picture of the year, Hitch corrected him saying he did not. He wold have had he won best director. The best picture Oscar went to Selznick, the producer.
There is no other book like this. It's filled with page after page of info.
(The other two must-reads are the Donald Spoto's "Art of Alfred Hitchcock" book and Grams and Wikstrom's "The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion". Together with these two and this book, you have the essential library and all-you-really-need references for all things Hitchcock.)
A terrific book about a film master of suspense.......2007-07-02
Yes, I'm one of those who can't hear Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" without thinking of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series that used it for a title theme.
This book is about Hitchcock and his more than 50 movies. And it is a fine work. Francois Truffaut writes it by supplying us with the results of a set of interviews with Hitchcock, and I think this works very well.
Hitchcock was an unrivaled master of suspense. Other considerations were secondary. Did the villains seem to take absurd chances or appear inadequately motivated? Well, sometimes they did, but that was not a big problem. Even in "Vertigo" Hitchcock admits that there is a "flaw" in the plot, as the entire idea by which the murderer has planned to escape might not work at all. But that did not bother me, and I doubt that it bothered Hitchcock very much either.
Another minor consideration was the exact nature of the items that the bad guys (or the good guys) make such desperate moves to acquire or defend. Hitchcock simply called such an item (such as some secret documents) a "MacGuffin." In the superb "North by Northwest" we see the exact nature of this item reduced to total insignificance (with the only comment being "government secrets"), and the movie is not any poorer for it. We do find out in this book that in 1944 (well before Hiroshima), Hitchcock wanted to use uranium as a MacGuffin, and he explained to a producer that the uranium was going to be used to make an atom bomb. Of course, when Hitchcock tried to ask a well-known physicist how big an atom bomb would be, he got a very evasive reply (and it turned out that the FBI put Hitchcock under surveillance for three months after that).
As Hitchcock explains, suspense is very different from surprise. If something dramatic happens out of the clear blue sky, the audience will be surprised. But suspense is achieved by letting the audience know that something is probably about to happen. Of course, surprise is not bad; it too is an essential element of many Hitchcock films.
Hitchcock gave himself bit parts in pretty much all of his movies; it was one of his trademarks. I'd always look to see where he'd show up when I saw a Hitchcock film. And Truffaut tells us and shows us quite a bit about these roles as well.
I admit that I was not very happy with one of the first Hitchcock movies I saw. You see, in John Buchan's exciting book, "The Thirty-nine Steps," the hero cracks the code of a now dead man to figure out the story left in a notebook. And there is this phrase in it that gets repeated a few times.
"('Thirty-nine steps') was the phrase; and at its last time of use it ran--('Thirty-nine steps, I counted them--high tide 10.17 p.m.')."
It is interesting to see the mystery worked out. And I was wondering how Hitchcock would handle it. Perhaps he would have either the victim or the hero miscount the steps! I was disappointed. The movie, albeit suspenseful, had nothing to do with either 39 or steps. It would have been better had it been titled with some mild double-entendre, such as "The Rubber Band" (the name of a very different mystery that has nothing to do with Hitchcock).
On the other hand, I truly enjoyed many other Hitchcock movies (one of my favorites is "The Trouble With Harry"). And this book is a very good and rather comprehensive tribute to Hitchcock and his cinematography. By the way, Truffaut dedicated it to Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia, who appeared in at least three of Hitchcock's movies and played an important role in "Strangers on a Train."
If you liked some of Hitchcock's movies, you'll probably find this book fascinating.
A really great conversation about film........2006-05-08
This book is a simple idea - Francois Truffaut interviews Alfred Hitchcock about his career. The simplicity makes for an engaging read. The book offers a unique look into the art of film. While it's technically an interview, it reads more like a casual conversation between two people who are incredibly skilled at what they do. If you love behind-the-scenes history of movies, you must pick up this book. Hitchcock talks about everything from casting to costumes to set design for every movie he ever made.
The book starts with Hitchcock's childhood and his first days making silent films in England in the 20's. The interview traces his career all the way to 1966's Torn Curtain. The concluding chapter includes a short interview on Frenzy, Hitch's 1972 hit, and offers Truffaut's comments on Topaz and Family Plot. It also gives a brief summary of The Short Night, a screenplay Hitch was working on shortly before his death. Truffaut also objectively examines the decline in quality of Hitchcock's films toward the end of his career, and explains his interesting theory of great flawed films.
If you love Hitchcock movies, the history of cinema, or the theory of directing, you'll enjoy this book.
I didn't actually read it.......2005-08-07
I bought this book as a gift for my brother who is going into film school soon, and it looks KICK ASS. It was mentioned in the dvd commentary of "The 400 Blows." I hope to borrow it from my bro at some juncture.
If you like the cinema, this book is a must for you! .......2005-07-19
Fifty hours, five hundred questions. This a provocative book. Two filmmakers talking about cinema: the circumstances that surrounded every film, the script elaboration, the backstage problems, the minutely precise reconstruction of the Hitchcock work enriched by the little anecdotes and the penetrating intelligence of Truffaut make of this text an absolute reference consult to explore the intimate universe of the suspense master.
And please don't forget that Truffaut made the Bride wore black in the middle sixties as perpetual homage to A.H.
Book Description
André Bazin's impact on film art is widely considered to be greater than that of many directors, actors, and producers. He is credited with almost single-handedly establishing the study of film as an accepted intellectual pursuit. Updating the paperback edition of 1977, Dudley Andrew has written a completely new introduction and provided an additional essay by Jean-Charles Tacchella.
Average customer rating:
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Correspondence, 1945-1984
Francois Truffaut
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0374522022 |
Book Description
The five hundred letters collected here span the whole of Tuffaut's extraordinary career, from the ardent and troubled adolescent to the years of grandest accomplishment in the French cinema. Noteworthy correspondents incude Jean-Luc Goddard, Alfred Hitchcock, Louis Malle, Helen Scott, Eric Rohmer, and lifelong friend Robert Lachenay.
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Finally Truffaut
Don Allen
Manufacturer: Beaufort Books
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ASIN: 0825303362 |
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