Truffaut, François

(1932-1984)

   cinematographer, director, producer

   A leader of the Nouvelle Vague movement in filmmaking (in which the director serves as auteur), François Truffaut was born in Neuilly and, after a troubled youth, began his career as a writer for the influential journal Cahiers du cinéma. in large part autobiographical, his work is personal and characterized by sensitivity, restlessness, and compassion. it shows, under the guise of irony, nostalgia for the times of quickly fleeting youth. Throughout his filmmaking career, he wrote or coauthored, as well as directed, all his films, which beautifully combine pathos, comedy, melodrama, and suspense. These include Les quatre cent Coups (1959), Tirez sur le pianiste (1960), Jules et Jim (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Baisers volés (1968), L'Enfant sauvage (1970), La Nuit américaine (1973), La Chambre verte (1978), Le Dernier Métro (1980), and La Femme d'à coté (1981). Truffaut was strongly influenced by the French filmmakers jean renoir and jean vigo, and by the English director Alfred Hitchcock, who is also the subject of his book Hitchcock/Truffaut (1983).