film essay questions
sharon1997
FrancoisTruffaut.pptxFrançois Truffaut
A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema
François Truffaut
In this essay, Truffaut delineates his problems with French cinema of the late 1950s. For him, there are ten to twelve films created yearly that are considered the “Tradition of Quality.”
Critics and cinephiles constantly laud these films. The films are supposed to be the embodiment of “psychological realism.” Truffaut strongly disagrees with this sentiment.
François Truffaut
Screenwriters Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost become prolific in French cinema and work with important directors. Their specialty is adaptation.
According to critics, Aurenche and Bost are faithful to the spirit the works they adapt. They are known to cite, “Invention without betrayal,” as a motto they follow.
François Truffaut
Though Aurenche and Bost claim that are specific scenes from novels that are ‘unfilmable,’ Truffaut disagrees. He uses The Diary of a Country Priest as an example to demonstrate that Aurenche and Bost were not faithful to the spirit or the letter of this novel. (11-13).
Another criticism Truffaut has of the screen writing duo is that they are literary men and not men of the cinema [“a man of the cinema”] 13
Truffaut’s mentor, Andre Bazin writes an entire essay praising Robert Bresson for the latter’s adaptation of “The Diary of a Country Priest.”
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François Truffaut
Truffaut goes on to say that Aurenche and Bost profane and blaspheme the works they adapt. Moreover, due to their popularity in French cinema, the majority of screenwriters aspire to be just like Aurenche and Bost. Truffaut posits this makes French cinema repetitive with the same story constantly being told.
François Truffaut
After his critique of Aurenche and Bost, Truffaut claims that metteur en scène or the mise en scène of a particular film director/auteur will write their own scenes and dialogue.
While writing for cinema seems beneath the screenwriters he has criticized, there are auteurs ready to create a new French cinema.
François Truffaut
Truffaut lists these directors/auteurs: Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Max Ophulus, Jacques Tati and Roger Leenhardt.
He declares that there can be no “peaceful coexistence of the ‘Tradition of Quality’ and the ‘auteur’s cinema.” (16)
François Truffaut
Interesting side note – Truffaut believes that comedy is the most difficult genre due to the fact that some many of the auteurs and “brilliant” screenwriters he respects failed at comedy.
François Truffaut
Truffaut writes this essay as a critic at Cahiers du cinema. He was known as a harsh film critic. In 1958, he was the only critic not invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
He later becomes a director. His first feature film, 400 Blows, is highly acclaimed; he receives the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959. 400 Blows is considered the start of the French New Wave.
François Truffaut
Some of Truffaut’s colleagues at Cahiers du cinema also go onto to become directors as well: Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol. They are considered part of the French New Wave.
