Totally Truffaut : 23 Films for Understanding the Man and the Filmmaker

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 f ollows, 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. "With this book, I try answering in a clear language 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 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, Françoise Dorléac, Jacqueline Bisset, Isabelle Adjani, Fanny Ardant or Catherine Deneuve- played in the creation of the films"-- Provided by publisher This book tries to answer in clear language two complex riddles: How is experience imprinted into films? What draws audiences to theaters? François Truffaut, like Fellini, Bergman, or Scorsese, worked with 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. The book focuses 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, Françoise Dorléac, Jacqueline Bisset, Isabelle Adjani, Fanny Ardant, and Catherine Deneuve—played in the creation of the films. cover Totally Truffaut Copyright Dedication Contents The Secret Rediscovered: Foreword to the French Edition by Michel Marie Preface Acknowledgments Les Mistons (1958) The 400 Blows (1959) Shoot the Piano Player (1960) Jules and Jim (1962) Antoine and Colette (1962) The Soft Skin (1964) Fahrenheit 451 (1966) The Bride Wore Black (1967) Stolen Kisses (1968) Mississippi Mermaid (1969) The Wild Child (1970) Bed & Board (1970) Two English Girls (1971) A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (1972) Day for Night (1973) The Story of Adele H. (1975) Small Change (1976) The Man Who Loved Women (1977) The Green Room (1978) Love on the Run (1979) The Last Metro (1980) The Woman Next Door (1981) Confidentially Yours (1983) Appendix Bibliography Index 01_9780197536308_Index.pdf Totally Truffaut addresses two central issues in François Truffaut's cinema. First, it follows the coded inscription of some major life events in his films, from his illegitimate birth to his passionate but doomed relationship with Catherine Deneuve. Second, it accounts for his lasting worldwide success and dispels several clichés on his work, for instance the superiority of his earlier films and his subsequent decline as a major director