Francois Truffaut

 Francois Truffaut




The 400 Blows (1959)

Shoot the Piano Player (1960)

Jules and Jim (1962)

The Soft Skin (1964)


RANKED:

4. The Soft Skin (1964)


With his 1964 film "The Soft Skin," Francois Truffaut had left behind the fast-and-loose experimentation of the New Wave movement and traded it in for a more straightforward formalist piece. Unfortunately, it also happened snap the streak of box office hits for the iconic director. Centering on a celebrated literary scholar, "The Soft Skin" follows Pierre as he navigates a newfound love affair and attempts to hide this infidelity from his wife. The film is a modernist lens of the stagnant and dissatisfaction with domesticity found within the bourgeois upper class. Sounds a lot like 'first world problems,' but boy, Truffaut manages to make it dramatic and tantalizing.  




3. Shoot the Piano Player (1960)


A pastiche of classical Hollywood films from Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut's 1960 film "Shoot the Piano Player" completely takes classical Hollywood B-movie styles and completely stretches and plays with them. Truffaut had an improvisational style with both the script and shooting, creating a messy, chaotic, and unpredictable thriller about a pianist caught in the middle of his brothers' scuffle with a local gang. As narratives converge and diverge, time skips, edits create abrupt halts, interactive narration, as well as many other creative employs by Truffaut, the film is an engaging and bountiful film full of twists and turns. As the French Nouvelle Vague movement came in full force in 1960 after the release of Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless," Francois Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player" should be considered a classic and memorable addition to the movement. 




2. Jules and Jim (1962)


By 1962, Francois Truffaut has already made a name for himself with films like "The 400 Blows" and "Shoot the Piano Player." With his 1962 film "Jules and Jim," he elevated himself into the pantheon of masterclass directors. He had even won the praise of personal heroes like Jean Renoir and Jean Cocteau. However, he lost favor with the French government, who felt that "Jules and Jim" was immoral. The film depicts the dynamic and complex relationship between Jules, Jim, and their mutual romantic partner Catherine. Through the rapid editing and creative camerawork that Truffaut employs, the audiences dives headfirst in the realms of human relationships and all its confounding complexities. In the beginning, the characters exhibit a true sense of freedom and liberty, spending their life on every joyous whim. By the end, these acts of impulse become a reaction to stagnation and emptiness rather than the sheer joy of living freely. "Jules and Jim" is quite confounding and the film itself refuses to be categorized, refuses emotional interpretation, and lives and breathes the very essence of free thought and being.




1. The 400 Blows (1959)


Many film historians often question where France's nouvelle vague film movement started. Many point to Jean Luc Goddard's 1960 masterpiece "Breathless." Others consider Agnes Varda's 1955 "La Pointe Courte" to be the earliest ignition point. And then there are a majority who consider Francois Tuffaut's 1959 film "The 400 Blows" to be where it all started. The film takes us into the life of a 12-year-old boy named Antoine as he navigates the oppressive and authoritative adults around him. His reaction to his authority is one rebellion and delinquency. To be fair, as the viewer continues to watch the film and the utter hypocrisy of the adults around Antoine, they too will be filled with this defiant and disobedient attitude. Truffaut's anamorphic camera glides through the textured realism of Antoine's frustrating experiences and in the end, reveals to the viewer that there's nothing we can do to save the poor boy from his depressing fate.  

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