Amazon.com
Any book-length interview with Alfred Hitchcock is valuable, but considering that this volume's interlocutor is François Truffaut, the conversation is remarkable indeed. Here is a rare opportunity to eavesdrop on two cinematic masters from very different backgrounds as they cover each of Hitch's films in succession. Though this book was initially published in 1967 when Hitchcock was still active, Truffaut later prepared a revised edition that covered the final stages of his career. It's difficult to think of a more informative or entertaining introduction to Hitchcock's art, interests, and peculiar sense of humor. The book is a storehouse of insight and witticism, including the master's impressions of a classic like Rear Window ("I was feeling very creative at the time, the batteries were well charged"), his technical insight into Psycho's shower scene ("the knife never touched the body; it was all done in the [editing]"), and his ruminations on flops such as Under Capricorn ("If I were to make another picture in Australia today, I'd have a policeman hop into the pocket of a kangaroo and yell 'Follow that car!'"). This is one of the most delightful film books in print. --Raphael Shargel
Customer Reviews:
One of three best Hitchcock books.......2007-09-08
Alfred Hitchcock rarely granted interviews. He did so only when it was required for publicity for his TV series and his movies. But in the late 1960s, French director Francois Truffaut interviewed Hitchcock at length (something like 2 or 3 hours a day for five days straight) and from a director-to-director standpoint, the book covers each and every one of Hitchcock's movies and "in-his-own-words" format. So Hitchcock is constantly commenting about his films. Truffaut thankfully, lets Hitchcock do much of the talking. There is no other book like this one and of the three must-have books on Alfred Hitchcock, this is on the top of the list.
Examples: When Truffaut asked Hitchcock why he appears at the close of the opening credits of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, the director commented that his in-joke of appearing in "almost" every movie distracted audiences spending time looking for him, shortly after the success of the TV show, hence the reason why the director made his on-screen appearances in the beginning of each of his movies after 1956, and not in the middle or end. Remember the scene in which Eva Marie Saint pulls a gun out and shoots Cary Grant towards the end of the picture? Hitchcock commented that a blooper is in that scene. A young boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears BEFORE she pulls the gun out of the purse. When Truffaut commented that Hitchcock won his only Oscar for Rebecca, which won the Academy Award for best picture of the year, Hitch corrected him saying he did not. He wold have had he won best director. The best picture Oscar went to Selznick, the producer.
There is no other book like this. It's filled with page after page of info.
(The other two must-reads are the Donald Spoto's "Art of Alfred Hitchcock" book and Grams and Wikstrom's "The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion". Together with these two and this book, you have the essential library and all-you-really-need references for all things Hitchcock.)
A terrific book about a film master of suspense.......2007-07-02
Yes, I'm one of those who can't hear Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" without thinking of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series that used it for a title theme.
This book is about Hitchcock and his more than 50 movies. And it is a fine work. Francois Truffaut writes it by supplying us with the results of a set of interviews with Hitchcock, and I think this works very well.
Hitchcock was an unrivaled master of suspense. Other considerations were secondary. Did the villains seem to take absurd chances or appear inadequately motivated? Well, sometimes they did, but that was not a big problem. Even in "Vertigo" Hitchcock admits that there is a "flaw" in the plot, as the entire idea by which the murderer has planned to escape might not work at all. But that did not bother me, and I doubt that it bothered Hitchcock very much either.
Another minor consideration was the exact nature of the items that the bad guys (or the good guys) make such desperate moves to acquire or defend. Hitchcock simply called such an item (such as some secret documents) a "MacGuffin." In the superb "North by Northwest" we see the exact nature of this item reduced to total insignificance (with the only comment being "government secrets"), and the movie is not any poorer for it. We do find out in this book that in 1944 (well before Hiroshima), Hitchcock wanted to use uranium as a MacGuffin, and he explained to a producer that the uranium was going to be used to make an atom bomb. Of course, when Hitchcock tried to ask a well-known physicist how big an atom bomb would be, he got a very evasive reply (and it turned out that the FBI put Hitchcock under surveillance for three months after that).
As Hitchcock explains, suspense is very different from surprise. If something dramatic happens out of the clear blue sky, the audience will be surprised. But suspense is achieved by letting the audience know that something is probably about to happen. Of course, surprise is not bad; it too is an essential element of many Hitchcock films.
Hitchcock gave himself bit parts in pretty much all of his movies; it was one of his trademarks. I'd always look to see where he'd show up when I saw a Hitchcock film. And Truffaut tells us and shows us quite a bit about these roles as well.
I admit that I was not very happy with one of the first Hitchcock movies I saw. You see, in John Buchan's exciting book, "The Thirty-nine Steps," the hero cracks the code of a now dead man to figure out the story left in a notebook. And there is this phrase in it that gets repeated a few times.
"('Thirty-nine steps') was the phrase; and at its last time of use it ran--('Thirty-nine steps, I counted them--high tide 10.17 p.m.')."
It is interesting to see the mystery worked out. And I was wondering how Hitchcock would handle it. Perhaps he would have either the victim or the hero miscount the steps! I was disappointed. The movie, albeit suspenseful, had nothing to do with either 39 or steps. It would have been better had it been titled with some mild double-entendre, such as "The Rubber Band" (the name of a very different mystery that has nothing to do with Hitchcock).
On the other hand, I truly enjoyed many other Hitchcock movies (one of my favorites is "The Trouble With Harry"). And this book is a very good and rather comprehensive tribute to Hitchcock and his cinematography. By the way, Truffaut dedicated it to Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia, who appeared in at least three of Hitchcock's movies and played an important role in "Strangers on a Train."
If you liked some of Hitchcock's movies, you'll probably find this book fascinating.
A really great conversation about film........2006-05-08
This book is a simple idea - Francois Truffaut interviews Alfred Hitchcock about his career. The simplicity makes for an engaging read. The book offers a unique look into the art of film. While it's technically an interview, it reads more like a casual conversation between two people who are incredibly skilled at what they do. If you love behind-the-scenes history of movies, you must pick up this book. Hitchcock talks about everything from casting to costumes to set design for every movie he ever made.
The book starts with Hitchcock's childhood and his first days making silent films in England in the 20's. The interview traces his career all the way to 1966's Torn Curtain. The concluding chapter includes a short interview on Frenzy, Hitch's 1972 hit, and offers Truffaut's comments on Topaz and Family Plot. It also gives a brief summary of The Short Night, a screenplay Hitch was working on shortly before his death. Truffaut also objectively examines the decline in quality of Hitchcock's films toward the end of his career, and explains his interesting theory of great flawed films.
If you love Hitchcock movies, the history of cinema, or the theory of directing, you'll enjoy this book.
I didn't actually read it.......2005-08-07
I bought this book as a gift for my brother who is going into film school soon, and it looks KICK ASS. It was mentioned in the dvd commentary of "The 400 Blows." I hope to borrow it from my bro at some juncture.
If you like the cinema, this book is a must for you! .......2005-07-19
Fifty hours, five hundred questions. This a provocative book. Two filmmakers talking about cinema: the circumstances that surrounded every film, the script elaboration, the backstage problems, the minutely precise reconstruction of the Hitchcock work enriched by the little anecdotes and the penetrating intelligence of Truffaut make of this text an absolute reference consult to explore the intimate universe of the suspense master.
And please don't forget that Truffaut made the Bride wore black in the middle sixties as perpetual homage to A.H.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-03-13
Truffaut's always been a favourite director of mine so it's especially interesting to read his take on other peoples' films.
A movie buff's dream bedside-table, dip-into-it-for-fun book.......2004-03-30
Originally published 1975. 358 pages including index, contents and short list of Truffaut's films.
I refuse to write this review after i've finished the entire book, because i refuse to admit that one day there could be no more of it to read. This is a film buff's dream book. Truffaut was a great filmmaker - his 400 Blows is one of the most beautifully told simple stories of adolescence ever. A sensitive, personal film. His film criticism, if possible, is better than his films. Truffaut had such a love for cinema, and this passion comes across in his writing more so than in his films.
This book is great to just dip into. It is a collection of essays, published and unpublished, expressing his opinion in a playful, fun, yet always intelligent way, of various individual films and entire careers. Included are pieces on the body of work of Chaplin, Welles, Jean Vigo, Jean Renoir, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Frank Capra, Bunuel, Bergman, Fellini, Rossellini, plus many short subjects on individual films by many French new wave filmmakers (Resnais's Night and Fog and Muriel, Vadim's And God Created Woman, Godard's My Life to Live and All Boys... Patrick, as well as some Bresson, Guitry, Tati, Melville, Dassin, Becker, Clouzot and a few others) and American directors of talkies mainly from the 40's and 50's (including Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Kubrick's Paths of Glory, Laughton's Night of the Hunter, Lumet's 12 Angry Men, Barefoot Contessa, Bounjour Tristesse and more).
Truffaut died in 1984, and this book was published in 1975 in english, but it doesn't talk about any movie after 1960 (i think), so bear that in mind - this is a chronicle of that period of cinema, which i wasn't that interested in when i bought the book, but it very quickly cultivated an interest in me. So even if you don't know much about movies before 1960, you'll find this book fascinating, and perhaps even inspiring.
Wonderful for film buffs.......2000-11-26
I read this entire book on a flight from London back to the U.S. When I got home, I rented/watched several of the movies mentioned by Truffaut (Rear Window, etc.) watching for the points he made. Many people don't know Truffaut was a journalist as well as a filmmaker. He was able to write as desriptively as his films were imaginative. My only complaint is that this is a book for serious film fans who have already seen the movies he reviews. If you haven't seen the films, his comments aren't referential enough to include you. But, that said, it will help you see many titles in a new way.
A marvelous realization of how Francois Truffaut views film........1998-07-17
A film critic and director, Francois Truffaut, brings the reader into an almost literary expositon on films and how they affect us. He takes film beyond its bounds by noting the joys and sorrows directors have put into their creations. Truffaut, as a great director himself, discusses directors and actors like Hitchcock, Renoir, Bergman, Kazin, Welles, Wilder, and many others. What impressed me about the book was the compassion Truffaut has for film making. He brings out the nuances that I failed to notice in great films. For instance, in his discussion of Citizen Kane, he brings out the parallelism between Charles Foster Kane's mother and his love for Susan Alexander by saying Alexander was areplacemnent for his separated mother. And of course rosebud and the snow dome create the crux for such parallels to show uo. In his review for Kane, he brings out such nuances that only a well-carved critic and director could do. Those out there who enjoy film and all its! ! complexities will enjoy this book. A Frenchman discovers what made such films great in so many people's eyes: Rear Window, 8 1/2, The Seven Year Itch, and many other great films. I love Truffaut, so reading what he likes and dislikes was a sheer pleasure - sumptuous at times!
Book Description
Long considered the definitive volume on Truffaut's genius, Annette Insdorf's study returns to print in a revised and updated edition. With fresh insights and an extensive section on the director's last five films, Insdorf captures the essence and totality of his work. She discusses his contributions to the French New Wave, his relationship with his mentors Hitchcock and Renoir, and the dominant themes of his cinema--women, love, children, and language--while exploring his own life in relation to his films. As warmly and piercingly human as its subject, François Truffaut immortalizes one of the cinema's most popular, prolific, and profound artists.
Customer Reviews:
Fine, but not a biography.......2001-05-18
The title is misleading, since this book is NOT a biography of the French New Wave director, but instead a thorough analysis of his films. It should have been called "The Films of Francois Truffaut." Professor Insdorf makes clear the connections among Truffaut's films. Many of those connections are quite surprising, and will deepen your appreciation of the films. Also, this book is the last word on Truffaut's influences. Professor Insdorf's description of the director's marriage of the Hitchcock sensibility with the lyricism of Jean Renoir is magnificent. This is a fine companion to the director's films, but the biographical data -- about Truffaut's youth and film criticism -- is perfunctory. And there is precious little on Truffaut's interaction with other French and world filmmakers.
Average customer rating:
- Not definitive, but the best biography we have so far...
- THE DIRECTOR WHO LOVED WOMEN
- A book that delves deeply into the life of Truffaut
- Comprehensive and frequently touching biography
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Truffaut: A Biography
Antoine de Baecque , and
Serge Toubiana
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520225244 |
Amazon.com
The mass movie audience knows him best as the sweet French scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but François Truffaut (1932-1984) made his first thunderous impact on world cinema as "that young thug of journalism." In the 1950s, as this culturally savvy biography by two French film journalists reminds us, Truffaut and a group of like-minded friends at the legendary Cahiers du Cinéma blasted traditional French film as too literary and polished. They proclaimed the birth of rougher, more personal moviemaking by "auteurs" (directors who wrote their own scripts) who were as intoxicated by the medium's possibilities as by the classic Hollywood movies these Young Turks adored. Truffaut practiced what he preached in early films like The Four Hundred Blows and Jules and Jim, which electrified a new generation of American directors who came of age in the 1960s. His private life was just as unconventional: though divorced from his first wife in 1965, they remained business associates through his many affairs with actresses (to whom he was also chronically unfaithful), and he even moved back in with her for a while when the brain tumor that ultimately killed him made it impossible to function alone. His biographers convey all this turbulent material with Gallic lucidity and toughness, seeing no need to make their subject conventionally lovable by softening his sharp edges. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
Here is the definitive story of one of the most celebrated filmmakers of our time, an intensely private individual who cultivated the public image of a man consumed by his craft. But as this absorbing biography shows, Truffaut's personal story--from which he drew extensively to create the characters and plots of his films--is itself an extraordinary human drama.
Customer Reviews:
Not definitive, but the best biography we have so far..........2004-01-09
While I share the other reviewer's enthusiasm for this excellent biography, there were some problems with the book that suggest to me that there is more to be said about Mr. Truffaut. The jumps in time throughout the book were ominous, as if the authors either didn't have enough information or didn't want to write about a particular moment in Truffaut's life. The organization of the book into short chapters with titles like "Friends First" and "The Diminished Life" some only 3 or 4 paragraphs long interrupted the flow of the narrative for me and made it hard to keep names and events clearly in my mind's eye. The biography was strongest on the early and late periods in the director's life. The long middle section felt repetitive and I found myself wandering a bit. As other reviewers have pointed out: you wont' find any exhaustive information on the making of various films in this book. I am looking forward to reading the Insdorf book for film coverage. There is an exhaustive listing of Truffaut's written works at the end of the book, but a curiously short list of books an articles on Truffaut (24 listings primarily in French). I suspect that the publishers trimmed this list considerably, so you will have to look elsewhere for a comprehensive bibliography. Despite my criticisms I enjoyed this book a great deal and it has led me back to the films which are now enhanced from reading this biography.
THE DIRECTOR WHO LOVED WOMEN.......2000-11-01
When you saw all of TRUFFAUT's films ,this book has the edge over all other books about him.It is a complete biography about a man who had a passion for making movies.It is also about a man who loved actresses and had love affairs with many of them.FRANCOIS is all over the book with his strenghts and his weaknesses.Many of his movies have autobiographical contents;STOLEN KISSES for instance show his obsession with women;The character of AZNAVOUR in SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is almost a portrait of himself;JULES AND JIM was a love triangle ,and in his private life FRANCOIS had several mistresses at the same time.His sensitive approach has also ruined a few movies like THE SOFT SKIN and THE MISSISSIPI MERMAID.As a critic he could be very rude at times ,but he was a convincing debator.Finally ,i would say that movies were really his escape from the monotomy of life ;it was his own ticket for adventure.A worthy biography ,because i learn things about him beyond gossip.
A book that delves deeply into the life of Truffaut.......2000-02-08
The book starts from before day one, describing Truffaut's conception into the world as accidental and unwanted. We see parents who were much harsher and less loving in the bio than we do in The 400 Blows. We are presented with a boy genius turned truant, turned self-hating autodidact who by the grace of some magical force is redeemed. That magical force, of course, is the beauty and wonder of film. Amid this telling, we are given a lesson in French film history. Great names like Max Ophuls, Jean Renoir, Alain Resnais, Goddard, and Cocteau. We see this young boy rise from a state of debilitating poverty to the ranks of polemical, ingenious film criticism. We are excited when this precocious film journalist rails against a heavily commercialized, stagnant film establishment, and we hold our breaths when this same critic turns director, and releases his first full length feature, The 400 Blows and wins the Cannes' Grand Jury Prize.
In this biography, the wonderful and important films that made Truffaut famous take a back seat. Instead, we see how his formative years inform his adult years in his search for love from actress, to actress, to actress. We see Truffaut's friendships and fall outs with brilliant filmmakers, and we see what goes on behind the scenes on the sets of his films. We realize, quite easily, that Truffaut the man is very special.
At the end of the book, we come away with at least a glimpse of the true essence of Truffaut--a singular genius, searching for love in life and through films; a humble creator who makes films to please no one but himself; a charming friend who prefers humor over sentimentality; and most of all, an intensely private individual who used film to articulate his deepest yearnings. Yes, Truffaut was a great film maker, but as this biography so convincingly shows, he was an even greater person.
Comprehensive and frequently touching biography.......1999-08-14
There was considerable autobiographical content to the movies of Truffaut, but they expose only a public side, frequently with a focus on male/female relations. Truffaut's childhood is exposed as sadder, but possibly less harsh than his image (and The 400 Blows) suggest. The rest of his life was lived to its fullest with many life-long friends, close working relationships and a touching continuity to his relations with the women in his life, even after the time of passion had passed. There are many references to French intellectuals and film-makers that will not be familiar to American readers and occassionally slow the book down. The description of the genesis of many of the famous movies and the time and troubles to be overcome to bring a movie to the viewer is as the best I have read. All-in-all, this is an entertaining and extremely well-written biography. The translation is seamless.
Amazon.com
André Bazin is a great film critic and essayist, arguably the best France ever produced. His impact on the international cinema was monumental and continues to be felt today. He popularized the auteur theory, the idea that directors were the authors of their films. He was one of the first to take American "B"" movie genres, such as Westerns and films noir, seriously. He waxed eloquently on the Italian neorealist movement of the late '40s and '50s and inspired the "New Wave" of French directors, many of whom wrote for the journal he founded and edited, the legendary Cahiers du Cinema. François Truffaut dedicated The 400 Blows to him.
Bazin had a keen eye for cinematic detail and technique, but was also one of the cinema's great sociologists, psychologists, and historians. Volume two of What Is Cinema? collects some of his most characteristic writings. It contains essays on the aesthetic of neorealism; individual neorealist films by Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and Federico Fellini; the brilliance of Charlie Chaplin; and the mythmaking qualities of the Western. The volume ends with an appreciation of the great Jean Gabin and three essays on sex in the movies, including the delightful "Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl." Bazin's essays are short, smoothly written, revelatory, and filled with remarkable insights and a profound love for his subject.
Book Description
André Bazin's What Is Cinema? (volumes I and II) have been classics of film studies for as long as they've been available and are considered the gold standard in the field of film criticism. Although Bazin made no films, his name has been one of the most important in French cinema since World War II. He was co-founder of the influential Cahiers du Cinéma, which under his leadership became one of the world's most distinguished publications. Championing the films of Jean Renoir (who contributed a short foreword to Volume I), Orson Welles, and Roberto Rossellini, he became the protégé of François Truffaut, who honors him touchingly in his forword to Volume II. This new edition includes graceful forewords to each volume by Bazin scholar and biographer Dudley Andrew, who reconsiders Bazin and his place in contemporary film study. The essays themselves are erudite but always accessible, intellectual, and stimulating. As Renoir puts it, the essays of Bazin "will survive even if the cinema does not."
Customer Reviews:
A must for any lover cinema!.......2004-08-25
Andre Bazin was the most powerful mind and one of the deepest thinkers , creator of the famous Cahiers du cinema , these were passionate and interesting digest who meet to famous and youth film makers and very valuable people related with this art.
Bazin goes to the origins of the cinema his meaning and implications in the psiquis and its mythical roots , Bazin death (40) was a painful loss for the raising french directors in 1957 .
When you get The 400 blows of Francois Truffaut (The quintessential New Wave film) in the initial titles you will watch the special hommage to Bazin in memoriam .
You may consider several mistakes in the traduction , when this happens remember the chinese statement: All traduction is a betray.
Try to get a spanish edition . I have both of them since I have not been able to get the french edition.
Significant work - atrocious translation.......2000-12-04
André Bazin was one of the most important writers on film. His views have been influential worldwide. The term Bazinian realism has become one of the major theoretical categories in film studies. The impact of Bazin's work on English-language film studies has been generated, to a large degree, by this two-volume collection of essays. A number of major debates that have been going round for years now (decades actually) in English language works center on issues arising from these essays; e.g. the relation between objects and their photographs. However it must be stressed that these English language essays are re-workings by their "translator" rather than faithful renderings of the originals. Hugh Gray, the translator, not only chose some of the essays from the original French editions but also treated them with great liberty. Sentences and footnotes are missing, others are combined without reason; expressions are made more "flowery"; and meanings are changed. I cannot tell whether the translator was not up to the task of doing this job properly or he decided to mistreat his subject to such a degree consciously. In any case it is a great pity that Bazin's work is available in English only in this unfortunate form.
The original woks deserve 5 stars; it is impossible to decide how to rate this particular version.
What Is Cinema?.......2000-06-29
What is Cinema? Volume One and What is Cinema Volume 2 are English translations drawn from the original French four-volume work. They are not the entire four-volume work, but include some of the more important essays. In France itself, the four-volume work was later boiled to a one-volume set of selections. This French version was later used for the selections in the Spanish and Portuguese versions. The Italian version is different from the others, but also drawn from the four-volume work. Much of the four-volume original French work that has been omitted from the English What is Cinema? volumes I and II can be found in Cardullo's more recent collection "Bazin at Work."
Since Bazin's passing, film theory ventured more deeply into such things as semiotics, Freudian and Lacanian analyses, and sociological/Marxist perspectives. However, Bazin was one of the first and arguably most important writers to take film discourse beyond the "funny" "sexy" "scary" level. Some of the places film discourse has gone since the time of Bazin would be difficult or impossible for an unitiated person to comprehend. This is not so with Bazin, a man who also did such things as take Charlie Chaplin films to show at factories during lunch hour.
Although Bazin passed away more than 40 years ago, he remains relevant even if his writings have been subject to some critical analysis from writers like Brian Henderson and Noel Carroll. Moreover, in reading Bazin, one often has moments of recognition that are applicable to more recent things in the theatres; for example, a remark Bazin makes about Marilyn Monroe's skirt flying up is pertinent to discussion of the Austin Powers films, Bazin's remarks about such things as films about arctic expeditions, bullfighting documentaries, or films of Chinese executions may have a certain relevance in talking about the phenomenon of "The Blair Witch Project" . . .
Book Description
Charming, revealing, fascinating — and hilarious — Spielberg, Truffaut and Me is simply one of the great movie memoirs, an instant classic which will appeal to anyone who's ever wondered what it's like on the inside of the Hollywood magic machine…
In 1976, actor Bob Balaban found himself working with two of the most gifted filmmakers of all time: the legendary French director François Truffaut and Steven Spielberg, who had cast his hero Truffaut alongside Balaban in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Balaban's hugely entertaining on-set diary reveals just what it's really like making a Hollywood blockbuster.
Customer Reviews:
Great movie book.......2004-12-08
This is one of the best making-of-a-movie book I've ever read, and I read a lot of them. It's not dishy/gossipy, just really entertaining and funny as hell. You get an idea about the insanity involved in making a movie. In that respect, the book reminded me a lot of Truffaut's movie, Day for Night. It's a great read for anyone interested in movies, or for anyone who wants a good laugh.
What a great look at a great movie!.......2003-05-26
This is a really interesting behind the scenes look at the making of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The perspective is from that of Bob Balaban, the actor who played the Translator/Cartographer teamed with Francois Truffaut. The anecdotes are fun and interesting, a look at what it was like to hang out and work with two of the greatest directors in history, one at the beginning of his career, still young and kind of idealistic, the other being a master at the height of his talents, acting for the first time. If you love CE3K, Speilberg, Truffaut or have a thing about guys who are constantly mistaken for Richard Dreyfuss (some of the funniest stuff in the book, this is a great read) It isn't really a dirt dishing tell all, it is more of sweet memories of the struggles involved in making a groundbreaking piece of cinema.
Average customer rating:
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El Cine Segun Hitchcock/ The Cinema According to Hitchcock (Libro Practico Y Aficiones / Practical Books and Fans)
Francois Truffaut
Manufacturer: Alianza
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ASIN: 8420638560 |
Book Description
Influential film critic, leading Nouvelle Vague director and heir to the humanistic cinematic tradition of Jean Renoir, Fran+ois Truffaut made films that reflected his three professed passions: a love of cinema, an interest in male-female relationships and a fascination with children. A comprehensive, behind-the-scenes examination of his entire career, this fascinating book provides an illuminating and comprehensively illustrated guide to his entire career, and an in-depth look at his methods.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Book.......2007-01-18
I bought this for my husband (a filmmaker) and he devoured this book. He has other books about Truffaut, and this one still provides new information. The photos are beautiful and the text informative.
An illustrious insight to a master at work........2006-03-18
I think they should have opted for a color photo on the slipcover, as the black and white scene they used gives no indication of the stunning use of color photography found inside this book. It is loaded with stills taken from the production of all of Truffaut's films, and is packed with pics I've never seen before.
There have been lots of books on Truffaut over the years, and most of them covering his personal life, and in depth anlaysis of all his films, but this is the first I've seen to focus strictly on what it took for Truffaut to get each of his film's made. It certainly isn't a photo book, as there's tons of text accounting the many facets of a man who loved his craft. Everything from how certain actors came to get parts in his film, to how Truffaut would invent scenes in his films, right in the middle of production.
I certainly haven't read it all yet, but what I have I found very intriguing, and between the in depth stories behind the films, and the great pictorial history, this book is certainly a keeper.
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