Alistair Fox

Anne Gillain

The Lost Secret

François Truffaut

"With this book, I try answering in a clear language two complex riddles: How is experience imprinted into films? What draws audiences to theaters? Franðcois Truffaut, like Fellini, Bergman or Scorsese, worked with an autobiographical material and Totally Truffaut follows the coded inscription of major life events in his films from his illegitimate birth to his passionate but doomed relationship with Catherine Deneuve. I focus first on the process that embeds experience into fictions, and more specifically into visual forms and patterns. I also try to define the mode of perception film language triggers in the spectator. When entering a movie theater, we expect perceptual pleasure. Truffaut's creative work is devoted to distilling this drug to audiences, an ambition central to the evolution of his style. These two issues are closely connected and Totally Truffaut follows, film after film, their crisscrossing paths. It also highlights the essential role several great actresses-Jeanne Moreau, Franðcoise Dorlâeac, Jacqueline Bisset, Isabelle Adjani, Fanny Ardant or Catherine Deneuve- played in the creation of the films"--

23 Films for Understanding the Man and the Filmmaker

Totally Truffaut

In Totally Truffaut, author Anne Gillain answers two complex riddles: How is experience imprinted into films? What draws audiences to theaters? François Truffaut, like Fellini, Bergman or Scorsese, worked with an autobiographical material and Totally Truffaut follows the coded inscription of major life events in his films from his illegitimate birth to his passionate and doomed relationship with Catherine Deneuve. The book focuses first on the process that embeds experience into fictions, and more specifically into visual forms and patterns. It also tries to define the mode of perception film language triggers in the spectator. When entering a movie theater, we expect perceptual pleasure. Truffaut's creative work is devoted to distilling this drug to audiences, an ambition central to the evolution of his style. These two issues are closely connected and Totally Truffaut follows, film after film, their crisscrossing paths. It also highlights the essential role several great actresses-Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Dorléac, Isabelle Adjani, Jacqueline Bisset, Fanny Ardant or Catherine Deneuve- played in the creation of the films.

Le cinéma selon François Truffaut

Dudley Andrew

The 34 essays of this collection by leading international scholars reassess Truffaut's impact on cinema as they locate the unique quality of his thematic obsessions and his remarkable narrative techniques. Almost 30 years after his death, we are presented with strikingly original perspectives on his background, influences, and importance.Bridges a gap in film scholarship with a series of 34 original essays by leading film scholars that assess the lasting impact of Truffaut’s work Provides striking new readings of individual films, and new perspectives on Truffaut’s background, influences, and importance Offers a wide choice of critical perspectives ranging from current reflections in film theories to articles applying methodologies that have recently been neglected or considered controversial Includes international viewpoints from a range of European countries, and from Japan, New Zealand, and Brazil Draws on Truffaut’s archives at the BiFI (Bibliotheque du film) in Paris Includes an extended interview with French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin concerning Truffaut’s shifting stature in French film culture and his manner of thought and work as a director

A Companion to François Truffaut

“Truffaut fans will love this English translation of Gillain’s work drawing on the psychology and cinematography of the acclaimed filmmaker.” —Booklist For François Truffaut, the lost secret of cinematic art is in the ability to generate emotion and reveal repressed fantasies through cinematic representation. Available in English for the first time, Anne Gillain’s François Truffaut: The Lost Secret is considered by many to be the best book on the interpretation of Truffaut’s films. Taking a psycho-biographical approach, Gillain shows how Truffaut’s creative impulse was anchored in his personal experience of a traumatic childhood that left him lonely and emotionally deprived. In a series of brilliant, nuanced readings of each of his films, she demonstrates how involuntary memories arising from Truffaut’s childhood not only furnish a succession of motifs that are repeated from film to film, but also govern every aspect of his mise en scène and cinematic technique. “Brilliant . . . A delicious reexamination . . . that will make us want to sit down and take in all of Truffaut’s wonderful filmography at once.” —PopMatters

Tutte le interviste di François Truffaut sul cinema

Between 1959 and 1984, French film director François Truffaut was interviewed over three hundred times. Each interview offers critical insight into the genesis of Truffaut’s films as he shares the sources of his inspiration, the choice of his themes, and the development of his screenplays. In addition, Truffaut discusses his relationships with collaborators, actors, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting of each film. These texts, originally assembled by Anne Gillain and published in French in 1988, are presented here in a montage arranged chronologically by film. This compilation includes an impressive array of reflections on cinema as an art form. Truffaut defines the aims and practices of the French New Wave, comparing their efforts to the films made by their predecessors and including comments that encompass the entire history of cinema. Truffaut on Cinema provides commentary on contemporary events, a wealth of biographical information, and Truffaut’s own artistic itinerary.

Truffaut on Cinema

The 34 essays of this collection by leading internationalscholars reassess Truffaut's impact on cinema as they locate theunique quality of his thematic obsessions and his remarkablenarrative techniques. Almost 30 years after his death, we arepresented with strikingly original perspectives on his background,influences, and importance.Bridges a gap in film scholarship with aseries of 34 original essays by leading film scholars that assessthe lasting impact of Truffaut’s work Provides striking new readings of individual films, and newperspectives on Truffaut’s background, influences, andimportance Offers a wide choice of critical perspectives ranging fromcurrent reflections in film theories to articles applyingmethodologies that have recently been neglected or consideredcontroversial Includes international viewpoints from a range of Europeancountries, and from Japan, New Zealand, and Brazil Draws on Truffaut’s archives at the BiFI (Bibliotheque dufilm) in Paris Includes an extended interview with French filmmaker ArnaudDesplechin concerning Truffaut’s shifting stature in Frenchfilm culture and his manner of thought and work as a director

Anne Gillain

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