Truffaut Francois: biography, creativity, quotes, filmography

One of the founders of this phenomenon in the world of cinema, as the "French new wave", is Truffaut Francois. Biography, the creative path and personal life of this brilliant actor, talented film director, screenwriter and producer will be discussed in this article.

It will soon be eighty-four years since the birth of François Truffaut. And although the director has not been with us for more than thirty years, is this not a reason to remember his brilliant creative path? Truffaut is an example of a man who "created himself." He did not have rich parents and powerful patrons. But he realized his dream of childhood - began to make films. And there are more than thirty of them in Truffaut's record. The most famous of his actor's work was the role of Claude Lacombe in the painting "Close Encounters of the Third Degree" (Steven Spielberg, 1977). And Truffaut's director's fame was brought by the 1973 film "American Night", which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Childhood

Truffaut Francois saw the light in Paris on February 6, 1932. He was an illegitimate child, and his mother, Jeanine de Montferrand, did not want to reveal the name of his biological father. She herself worked as a secretary in the newspaper Illustratsion. Immediately after the birth of the child, she surrendered him to the care of first a wet nurse, and then her mother, Genevieve de Montferrand. At the end of 1933, the secretary still married. Her chosen one was Roland Truffaut, a draftsman of an architect company. In the spring of 1934, a boy was born to a couple who died two months later. Roland Truffaut adopted little Francois and gave him his name. However, in the poor apartment of the draftsman there was simply no place for the child. He was forced to sleep in the corridor, and therefore preferred to live with his grandmother, who lived in the ninth district of Paris. It was Genevieve de Montferrand who instilled in her grandson the love of cinema, music and books.

Adolescence

Grandmother died when Truffaut Francois turned ten years old. After that, he was forced to settle in the apartment draftsman. Once Francois found his diary, and only in this way found out that Roland was not his own father. This did not bother the boy. Already an adult, in 1968, Francois turned to a private detective agency with a request to find his real father. Investigating the detectives revealed that he was a certain Roland Levi, a Jew originally from Portugal, who was born in Bayonne and worked in the thirties as a dentist in Paris. Biological father suffered a lot during the fascist occupation of France, and then married in 1949 and has two children.

As a teenager, François tried as rarely as possible to go home and spend a lot of time on the street with friends. At the age of eight, after watching Abel Hans' film "Paradise Lost," he firmly decided to link his fate with the cinema. He often skipped classes, and at the age of fourteen dropped out of school altogether.

Truffaut Francois: Creativity

The young man had neither money nor connections. In order to somehow join the world of cinema, he writes articles for "Cahiers du Cinema". This magazine was founded by the famous critic André Bazin. Along with Truffaut, another young man, Jean-Luc Godard, also writes in Cinematographic Notebooks. Both gifted authors became subsequently recognized directors. When Truffaut turned twenty-three, he withdrew his first short film - "Visit" (1954). Then followed the tapes "Sorrows" and "History of water". The latter was co-authored by Zh. Godard and François Truffaut. The filmography of the director's serious works begins with "Four Beats" (1959). This first full-length album brought Truffaut not only the "Golden Branch" at the Cannes festival, but also world fame. And, since this film is to some extent autobiographical, we must give it more attention.

Antoine Doanel is an alter ego director

The name "Four Hits" is an idiom. In Russian, it corresponds to "water, fire and copper pipes." Through a great test was a fourteen-year-old boy, played by a young actor Jean-Pierre Leo. Teachers consider Antoine Duanel a truant and a bully, and his parents do not pay him any attention. Therefore, a difficult teenager riots with redoubled force. Antoine Duanel escapes from school, makes his way to the cinema and "hares" and enjoys the films. He is placed in a correctional closed boarding school, but from there he also manages to escape. After this film, Truffaut Francois finally quarreled with his parents, because not only they (but also neighbors) easily found out in the main character of the director who remained behind the scenes. But the film brought an award in Cannes, world fame and a large cashier. And so, the matured Jean-Pierre Leo starred in the role of the same Antoine Duanele in four of Truffaut's paintings: "Antoine and Colette", "Stolen Kisses", "Family Hearth" and "Escaped Love" (1962-1979).

"The French New Wave"

Despite the resounding success of the autobiographical tape "Four Beats", as well as the thriller "Shoot the Pianist" genre (starring Charles Aznavour), the new direction in the cinema was only spoken after the release of the third full-length film - "Jules and Jim "(1961). The love triangle was brilliantly played by actors Henri Serre, Oscar Werner and Jeanne Moreau. The picture was remembered by the audience with a wonderful soundtrack, and Time included it in the TOP "One hundred timeless films". Then the film critics started talking about the "New French Wave". The features of this current were tried to express by Francois Truffaut. Quotations of his statements boil down to the fact that the film must constantly keep the viewer in suspense. Replicas, sound - all this is just an escort of that drama, which is played out in the mimicry of the actors. In fact, the director appealed for inspiration to the masters of silent films. The idol for Truffaut was Hitchcock. This director did not allow banality in his works. And as a result, the audience is captivated by what is happening on the screen, until light illuminates in the cinema.

Acting

Debuting Truffaut Francois in the film "Wild Child" (1969), where he played Dr. Jean Itar. This role did not bring significant success, but the next - in the "American Night" - drew attention to the public. The praise of film critics was triggered by Truffaut's acting in Spielberg's film "Close Encounters of the Third Degree," where he was embodied in Claude Lacombe. And, at last, one more and last role - Julienna Daven in a tape «the Green room» (1978). By the way, the director liked to appear in his own films, flickering among extras like a man reading a newspaper on the terrace of a cafe, then as a passer-by. Truffaut admitted in an interview that such an initiative was then transformed into a prejudice. Later, the director, wishing good luck to his film, tried to get into the frame of the first five minutes of filming.

Successes and failures

Do not think that the creative path of François Truffaut was covered with roses. There were thorns on this road. So, the film "Gentle Skin" (1964), in which Sister Catherine Deneuve appeared, was frankly a failure. But the next picture - the adaptation of Bradbury's story "451 ° Fahrenheit" - rehabilitated the director in the eyes of the public. "American Night" pulled immediately into four nominations for the "Oscar". Truffaut, who, according to his custom, was both a director and an actor (Ferran), received one statuette - for "Best Foreign Film". "The last metro" won just ten "Cesars" - a prestigious French prize in the cinema. But we must pay tribute to the star cast. The film starred Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. "Neighbor" - the penultimate film of Truffaut. In the tape, Depardieu and Fanny Ardan appeared. This film also received the love of the public and the praises of film critics.

Truffaut Francois: personal life

Boy future director was very amorous. And he remained that way all his life. His first love was Lillian, whom he thrust love notes into shorts. Already at the age of fourteen he had a novel (though unsuccessful) with the secretary Genevieve Santen. When his stepfather placed Francois in a correctional center for teenagers, he got along with Mademoiselle Rickers, who worked there as a psychologist. Then there was an affair with Lilian Litvin, with whom Truffaut got together on the basis of love of cinema. Then the Don Juan list was enlarged by Italian Laura Murray. At the Venice Film Festival, the young director met with the daughter of producer Madeleine Morgenstern. And he married her in 1957. Madeleine gave him two daughters, but in 1965 the couple divorced. Evil tongues were rumored that the marriage with Madeleine was based solely on the calculation - in fact the father-in-law sponsored Truffaut with money to continue his career in cinema. But, most likely, Madeleine fed up with the numerous novels of Francois, and to himself - the feeling of guilt before his wife.

Death of the director

So it turned out that almost all the actresses who starred in the films of Truffaut, inevitably became his mistresses. This happened with Marie-France Pisier, who played the role of Colette in "Love at Twenty Years," with Bernadette Laffon from the band "Sorbents". The list of broken women's hearts by the director is as long as his filmography. Truffaut Francois and Catherine Deneuve met on the set of "The Last Metro". The novel was so violent that the actress agreed to have a child from her lover. But this was not meant to happen. But the actress Fanny Ardan after filming "Neighbors" gave the director a daughter. But when Francois fell ill with brain cancer, he was courted only by his rejected wife, Madeleine Morgenstern. Died Truffaut October 21, 1984 in the suburbs of Paris Neuilly-on-the-Seine. At the cemetery of Montmartre came all the women whom he loved.