film essay questions

1

A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema

Francois Truffaut ,

Francois Truffaut began his career as a film critic writing for Cahiers du Cinema beginning in

1953. He went on to become one of the most celebrated and popular directors of the French

New Wave, beginning with his first feature film, Les Quatre cents coup (The Four Hundred

Blows, 1959). Other notable films written and directed by Truffaut include Jules et Jim (1962),

The Story of Adele H. (1975), and L'Argent de Poche (Small Change; 1976). He also acted

in some of his own films, including L'Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970) and La Nuit

Americain (Day for Night, 1973). He appeared as the scientist Lacombe in Steven Spielberg's

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Truffaut's controversial essay, originally published

in Cahiers du Cinema in January 1954, helped launch the development of the magazine's

auteurist practice by rejecting the literary films of the "Tradition of Quality" in favor of a cinema

des auteurs in which filmmakers like Jean Renoir and Jean Cocteau express a more personal

vision. Truffaut claims to see no "peaceful co-existence between this 'Tradition of Quality' and

an 'auteur's cinema."' Although its tone is provocative, perhaps even sarcastic, the article

served as a touchstone for Cahiers, giving the magazine's various writers a collective identity

as championing certain filmmakers and dismissing others.

These notes have no other object than to attempt to

define a certain tendency of the French cinema - a

tendency called "psychological realism" - and to

sketch its limits.

Ten or Twelve Films

If the French cinema exists by means of about a

hundred films a year, it is well understood that only

ten or twelve merit the attention of critics and cine­

philes, the attention, therefore of Cahiers.

These ten or twelve films constitute what has been

prettily named the "Tradition of Quality"; they force, by

their ambitiousness, the admiration of the foreign press,

defend the French flag twice a year at Cannes and at

Venice where, since 1946, they regularly carry off

medals, golden lions and grands prix.

With the advent of"talkies," the French cinema was

a frank plagiarism of the American cinema. Under the

influence of Sca,face, we ni.ade the amusing Pepe Le

Mako. Then the French scenario is most clearly obliged

to Prevert for its evolution: Quai Des Brumes (Port Of

Shadows) remains the masterpiece of poetic realism.

Frarn;ois Truffaut, "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema," from Cahiers d11 Ci11C111a in English l. Originally published in French in Ca/tiers d11 Ci11C111a 31

195-1). © 1954. Reprinted by penn.ission of Cahiers d11 Ci11e111a.