One of the founders of such a phenomenon in world cinema as the "French New Wave" is Truffaut Francois. The biography, creative path and personal life of this brilliant actor, talented film director, screenwriter and producer will be discussed in this article.
François Truffaut will soon be eighty-four years old. And although the director has not been with us for more than thirty years, why is this not a reason to remember his brilliant creative path? Truffaut is an example of a man "who created himself." He did not have rich parents and powerful patrons. But he fulfilled his childhood dream - he began to make films. And there are more than thirty of them in Truffaut's track record. His most famous acting work was the role of Claude Lacombe in the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (Steven Spielberg, 1977). And Truffaut's directorial fame was brought by the 1973 film "American Night", which won the Oscar in the nomination "Best Foreign Film".
Childhood
François Truffaut saw the light of day in Paris on February 6, 1932. He wasan illegitimate child, and his mother, Jeanine de Montferrand, was unwilling to reveal to him the name of his biological father. She herself worked as a secretary in the newspaper "Illustration". Immediately after the birth of the child, she handed him over to the care first of the nurse, and then of her mother, Genevieve de Montferrand. At the end of 1933, the secretary nevertheless got married. Roland Truffaut, a draftsman for an architectural company, became her chosen one. In the spring of 1934, the couple had a boy who died two months later. Roland Truffaut adopted little Francois and gave him his last name. However, in the draftsman's poor apartment there was simply no place for a child. He was forced to sleep in the corridor, and therefore preferred to live with his grandmother, who lived in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. It was Genevieve de Montferrand who instilled in her grandson a love of cinema, music and books.
Boyhood
Grandmother died when Truffaut François was ten years old. After that, he was forced to settle in the draftsman's apartment. Once Francois found his diary, and only in this way did he find out that Roland was not his own father. This did not give rest to the boy. Already an adult, in 1968, Francois turned to a private detective agency with a request to find his real father. Investigation by detectives showed that he was a certain Roland Levy, a Jew originally from Portugal, who was born in Bayonne and worked in the thirties as a dentist in Paris. The biological father went through a lot during the Nazi occupation of France, and then married in 1949 and has two children.
As a teenager, Francois tried to visit as little as possibleat home and spent a lot of time outdoors with friends. Even at the age of eight, after watching the film by Abel Hans "Paradise Lost", he firmly decided to link his fate with cinema. He often skipped classes and dropped out of school at the age of fourteen.
Truffaut François: creativity
The young man had neither money nor connections. In order to somehow join the world of cinema, he writes articles for Cahiers du Cinema. This magazine was founded by the famous critic André Bazin. Together with Truffaut, another young man, Jean-Luc Godard, also writes articles in Cinematographic Notebooks. Both gifted authors later became recognized directors. When Truffaut was twenty-three years old, he made his first short film, The Visit (1954). This was followed by the tapes "Tomboys" and "History of Water". The latter was filmed in collaboration with J-L. Godard and Francois Truffaut. The filmography of the director's serious work begins with Four Hundred Blows (1959). This first feature brought Truffaut not only the Golden Bough at the Cannes Film Festival, but also worldwide fame. And, since this film is somewhat autobiographical, we should pay closer attention to it.
Antoine Doinel - director's alter ego
The name "Four Hundred Blows" is an idiom. In Russian, it corresponds to "water, fire and copper pipes." A fourteen-year-old boy, played by the young actor Jean-Pierre Leo, went through great trials. Teachers consider Antoine Doinel a truant and a bully, and his parents do not pay any attention to him. Sothe difficult teenager rebels with a vengeance. Antoine Doinel runs away from school, sneaks into cinemas and enjoys movies. He is placed in a correctional closed boarding school, but even from there he manages to escape. After this film, Truffaut Francois completely quarreled with his parents, because not only they (but the neighbors too) easily recognized the director who remained behind the scenes in the main character. But the film brought an award at Cannes, worldwide fame and a big box office. Therefore, Jean-Pierre Léo, who had matured, starred in the role of the same Antoine Doinel in four more Truffaut films: Antoine and Colette, Stolen Kisses, Family Hearth and Runaway Love (1962-1979).
French New Wave
Despite the resounding success of the autobiographical film "Four Hundred Blows", as well as the test in the genre of the thriller "Shoot the Pianist" (Charles Aznavour himself starred in the title role), they started talking about a new direction in cinema only after the release of the third full-length film - "Jules and Jim" (1961). The love triangle was brilliantly played by actors Henri Serre, Oscar Werner and Jeanne Moreau. The picture was remembered by the audience for its excellent soundtrack, and Time included it in the TOP "One Hundred Timeless Movies". Then film critics started talking about the New French Wave. François Truffaut himself tried to express the features of this trend. Quotes of his statements boil down to the fact that the film should constantly keep the viewer in suspense. Replicas, sound - all this is just an escort of the drama that is played out in the facial expressions of the actors. In fact, the director looked tomasters of silent cinema. Truffaut's idol was Hitchcock. This director did not allow banality in his works. And as a result, the audience is captivated by what is happening on the screen until the lights come on in the cinema.
Acting work
Truffaut Francois made his debut in the film "The Wild Child" (1969), where he played Dr. Jean Itard. This role did not bring significant success, but the next one - in "American Night" - drew the attention of the public to him. Critics praised Truffaut's performance in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where he played Claude Lacombe. And, finally, one more and last role - Julien Daven in the film "Green Room" (1978). By the way, the director liked to appear in his own films, flashing among the extras either as a person reading a newspaper on the terrace of a cafe, or as a passerby. Truffaut admitted in an interview that such an initiative later turned into a prejudice. Later, the director, wishing good luck for his film, tried to get into the frame of the first five minutes of filming.
Successes and failures
Don't think that François Truffaut's creative path was strewn with roses. There were also thorns on this road. So, the film "Tender Skin" (1964), in which Catherine Deneuve's sister starred, was frankly a failure. But the next picture - a screen version of Bradbury's story "451 ° Fahrenheit" - rehabilitated the director in the eyes of the public. "American Night" drew four Oscar nominations at once. Truffaut, who, according to his custom, was anddirector and actor (Ferrand), received one statuette - for "Best Foreign Film". "The Last Metro" won ten "Cesars" at once - a prestigious French prize in cinema. But you have to give credit to the stellar cast. The film stars Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. The Neighbor is Truffaut's penultimate film. The film starred Depardieu and Fanny Ardant. This film also won the love of the public and the praise of film critics.
Truffaut Francois: personal life
As a boy, the future director was very amorous. And remained so all his life. His first love was Lillian, whom he stuffed love notes into his shorts. Already at the age of fourteen he had an affair (albeit unsuccessful) with his secretary Genevieve Santen. When his stepfather placed Francois in a correctional center for teenagers, he became friends with Mademoiselle Rickers, who worked there as a psychologist. Then there was an affair with Lillian Litvin, with whom Truffaut met on the basis of his love for cinema. Then the Don Juan list was supplemented by the Italian Laura Murray. At the Venice Film Festival, the young director met the producer's daughter, Madeleine Morgenstern. And he married her in 1957. Madeleine gave him two daughters, but in 1965 the couple divorced. Evil tongues said that the marriage with Madeleine was based solely on the calculation - after all, the father-in-law sponsored Truffaut with money to continue his career in cinema. But, most likely, Madeleine was tired of Francois's numerous novels, and he himself was tired of guilt before his wife.
Death of a director
It so happened thatalmost all the actresses who starred in Truffaut's films inevitably became his mistresses. This happened with Marie-France Pisier, who played the role of Colette in "Love at Twenty", with Bernadette Laffon from the tape "Tomboys". The director's list of broken women's hearts is as long as his filmography. Truffaut Francois and Catherine Deneuve met on the set of The Last Metro. The romance was so stormy that the actress agreed to have a child from her lover. But this was not destined to happen. But the actress Fanny Ardant, after filming The Neighbor, gave the director a daughter. But when François fell ill with brain cancer, only his rejected wife, Madeleine Morgenstern, cared for him. Truffaut died on October 21, 1984 in Neuilly-on-Seine, a suburb of Paris. All the women he loved came to the Montmartre cemetery.
