Francois Truffaut, The torchbearer of the new wave that swept French cinema in the 60’s, never knew his father. A foster father lent him little more than his name. Escape came to him at the age of 8 in the form of cinema. He’d secretly sneak into cinema halls to watch films. At age 16, he stole a typewriter from his father’s office to cover the screening cost of a film club he had started.  After he broke the promise made to his step-father to close the club the man had Francois put in police custody. From here, he was sent to a juvenile centre.

The people engaged in this real life drama, could never conjure even in their wildest imaginations, that these incidents would forever be etched in cinematic history, in a film that would be one of cinema’s most rousing achievement. And that the last escape scene of the protagonist, would come to signify the escape of French cinema, into a new wave of independence.

Much before this however, Truffaut would find a father and guru in film critic Andre Bazin, who’d play a prominent role in his intellectual development. At age 18, Bazin hired him as a secretary freeing him from his parents. He introduced Truffaut to Objectif 49, an elite forum where the likes of Godard and Roossellini frequented, and led Truffaut into film criticism.

A decision to join the army in 1950, surprised many. What didn’t surprise those who knew him, was his attempt to desert and his arrest afterwards. It was Bazin who rescued him again.

In 1954, he wrote a polemic criticism of French films. This sent shock waves through the French film industry and much later would provide the architecture for the ‘New Wave’ of cinema.

After writing hundreds of articles and reviews, he made his first short film in 1955. This film so embarrassed him that he refused to show it. This was also the year, when he married Madeline, the daughter of the CEO of a major film distribution company.

Next year, he began making a film based on his teenage years. An ad was given to find the lead for this film. The person that destiny brought to Truffaut, was a 14 year old iconoclast and a bad student, just like Truffaut was at that age. This guy was Jean-Pierre Leaud, who would not only steal the show with his powerhouse performance as a rebellious kid in ‘400 Blows’, but act in all of Truffaut’s direct biographical films.

At Cannes in 1959, Truffaut would win the best director award, vindicating the new style of film making that would be called ‘Nouvelle Vague’ or the ‘French New Wave’. The defining principles of this movement would be freedom, independence and sensibility based on realism. The movement shunned technical and cinematic perfection and plot clichés. 

Truffaut worked with a certain set of people in most of his film, including his cinematographer ‘Raoul Coutard’ who in his own way would define the visual aesthetics of the New Wave.

However, nothing would surpass his relationship with actor Jean-Pierre Leaud, who’d play his alter ego on screen, and be like a son outside it.  These films, which take on incidents from Truffaut’s life, and take the life of Antoine Doinel from ‘400 Blows’ forward, are: Love at Twenty (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). So close was this character to Truffaut that he once remarked, “The fictional character Antoine Doinel is, therefore, a mixture of two real people, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Leaud.”

One critic observes of Truffaut, “all of his work is a search for a lost childhood.” He had reasons for saying so. Not only were there children in his films, his male protagonists were adults, who remained children inside. Truffaut’s females almost invariably, are stronger characters, earthy and more stable compared to their childlike male partners.

Truffaut repeatedly paid homage to his two great loves, movies and books, dedicating a movie each to these two passions. ‘Farenheit 451’ is the story of a futuristic totalitarian society, where books are banned and rebels memorize them to keep them alive. ‘Days of Night (1971)’ has a film director, who though seemingly making a movie, is actually diarizing his life. This high tribute to cinema, won Truffaut another Oscar for best foreign film.

Truffaut also winced no frame to pay tribute to his cinematic master, Alfred Hitchcock in his 6 noir films: Shoot the piano player, The Bride Wore Black, Mississippi Mermaid (1969), Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972) and his last film, Finally Sunday (1983).

Women were Truffaut’s other passion. He fell in love with almost all of his actresses, making films about the kind of women he admired: Jules et Jim (1962), Two English Girls (1971) etc. He made films about marriage leading to sorrow (The Bride Wore Black’); extra-marital affairs that are punished (The Soft Skin) and the madness of love (The story of Adele H., 1975 & The Woman Next Door, 1981).

In a career cut short by his untimely death at age 52, Truffaut framed a whole gamut of human emotions. Refusing to follow set patterns, he made movies from a basic instinct inside his soul and ended up becoming an inspiration and a father figure to a whole generation of filmmakers.

© Palador Pictures Pvt. Ltd., 2008 

Francois Truffaut's Filmography:

   1. Vivement dimanche! (Finally, Sunday) (1983)
   2. Femme d'à côté, La (The Woman Next Door)(1981)
   3. Dernier métro, Le (The Last Metro)(1980)
   4. Amour en fuite, L' (Love on the Run)(1979)
   5. Chambre verte, La (The Green Room)(1978)
   6. Homme qui aimait les femmes, L' (The Man Who Loved Women)(1977)
   7. Argent de poche, L'(Pocket Money)(1976)
   8. Histoire d'Adèle H., L' (The Story of Adele H)(1975)
   9. Nuit américaine, La (Day for Night ) (1973)
  10. Une belle fille comme moi (A Gorgeous Bird Like Me) (1972)
  11. Deux anglaises et le continent, Les (Two English Girls) (1971)
  12. Domicile conjugal (Bed and Board) (1970)
  13. Enfant sauvage, L' (The Wild Boy) (1970)
  14. Sirène du Mississipi, La (Mississippi Mermaid) (1969)
  15. Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses) (1968)
  16. Mariée était en noir, La (The Bride Wore Black) (1968)
  17. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
  18. Peau douce, La (The Soft Skin) (1964)
  19. Amour à vingt ans, L' (Love at Twenty) (1962) (segment "Antoine et Colette")
  20. Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim) (1962)
  21. Une histoire d'eau (A Story of Water) (co-director) (1961)
  22. Tire-au-flanc 62 (The Army Game) (1960)
  23. Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960)
  24. Quatre cents coups, Les (400 Blows ) (1959)
  25. Mistons, Les (The Mischief Makers) (1957)
  26. Une visite (1955)