In April 1951, the film industry's landmark magazine, The Cahiers du Cinéma (Film Handbook), was born, which directly promoted the French New Wave film movement, not only producing a number of excellent directors, but also becoming one of the most expensive magazines in the film industry.
The "bad boy" we are going to talk about today is not only the ace writer after the founding of the Film Handbook, but also known as one of the two heroes of the New Wave (the other is Godard), who is François Truffaut.
Truffaut made Les quatre cents coups at the age of 27, winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. I believe that I dare to say that I am a friend of film enthusiasts, and it is impossible to miss this classic, which is the banner of the French New Wave.
Truffaut then produced a number of masterpieces such as "Killing the Pianist", "Zu & Zhan", "Wild Child" and so on, and his works have many characteristics of French cinema: urbanity and wit, warm humanistic stance, charming appeal and extreme romantic color, each character shines brightly.
Truffaut at work has a kitten at his feet
Such a director full of gentle and casual emotions, in fact, in the early stages of life, is a "bad seed" that cannot be saved, the kind of child that even his family wants to send him to the correctional center.
1. Give him freedom
Truffaut was a street boy from childhood, not knowing who his biological father was, he was fostered in his grandmother's house before the age of 8, and then he was completely herded by his mother and stepfather, and at the age of 16, he quietly sneaked into his stepfather's office, stole the printer and sold it for money, used the money to start a club called "movie maniacs", watched pirated movies with his good friends every week, and relied on various wild ways, from his teens to his twenties, watching more than 3,000 films, and even reciting all the lines of certain movies.
Truffaut, 7 years old, was still living in his grandmother's house at the time, and his grandmother died at the age of 8, gradually becoming stubborn
Unfortunately, this love of the film idiot Truffaut was not supported, and because he owed too much in advance for watching pirated movies, he was arrested and sent to the police station, and eventually sent to the juvenile correctional center.
It was not his parents who rescued him from the correctional facility, but André Bazin, who had a great influence on Truffaut's future life.
Shoveler Andrei Bazin
Born into a middle-class family, Bazin was born intelligent, graduated from high school at the age of 15, was rejected by the university because of his young age, and later entered the Santa Cruz de Santa Cruz at Versailles at the age of 20 with the 7th place in the country, starting the university era. Because I love movies, I am crazy to contribute to film magazines and like to communicate with all kinds of people who love movies. By chance, a few months before Truffaut was imprisoned, 30-year-old Bazin met Truffaut, 16.
Truffaut in the front row and Bazin and his wife in the back row
After Truffaut entered the correctional facility, Bazin reached out for the first time. However, the restless Truffaut did not get on the right track, and he joined the army because of his loveless gambling, deserted on the eve of the army's arrival in the French colony, and squatted in the military prison for 6 months, this time thanks to Bazin's help again, which allowed him to regain his freedom.
2. Give him the stage
Truffaut, who had regained his freedom, moved into Bazin's house, and the movie-loving duo began a daily, endless conversation about the film that apparently helped Truffaut sort out his systematic perception of the film. Bazin then invited Truffaut to write a film review for the magazine he founded, The Film Handbook.
The cover of the first issue of The Film Handbook was Gloria Swanson, an actress on sunset boulevard
The self-taught Truffaut is fierce, like an angry calf, and has published 528 articles in five years, and when the 22-year-old Truffaut wrote "On a Certain Tendency of French Cinema", he said: "French cinema is dead, and film directors, as authors of films, should not be subject to film companies... Expensive studios should be left behind and shot on the streets or even in real homes. In addition to this, Truffaut, who was worried about French films and fearful, also wrote many shocking words, which offended many directors in the French film circle, but Bazin did not accuse him, but let him think and play on his own.
This silent support completely inspired Truffaut's in-depth exploration of the film, and quickly became the flag bearer of the film critics of that era. In particular, in 1954, Truffaut coined the term "la politique des auteurs", which became a common ideology among most "manual" critics, that is, to emphasize the director's personality as the criterion for film evaluation, especially when evaluating genre films. This awareness also prompted film critics to try to implement their ideas with short films or films, and in the late 1950s, the heyday of New Wave cinema ushered in.
3. Give him wings
Thanks to Bazin's efforts, the "Film Handbook" was in full swing, and the editorial department was full of heroes, not only Truffaut but also Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric, Houmai and Jacques Riviette, etc. The collision of the sparks of the young people's thinking allowed the abandoned child Truffaut to find a spiritual home.
At that time, the editorial office of the "Film Manual" can be said to be a star shining like a starry sky, how many movie bigwigs do you recognize?
However, his earth-shattering argument is obviously not tolerated by everyone, and the most direct impact comes from Truffaut's future father-in-law, his father-in-law, who was also a director of the French film circle at the time, who asked Truffaut: "You can express your opinion so much, when will you try to make a movie yourself?" "It really made Truffaut eager to try.
By this time, Truffaut had already made some small short films, such as "Antoine's Escape", based on which Truffaut created "Four Hundred Blows" to prove to his father-in-law: Not only can I spray, but I can shoot it myself. On the first day of intense preparation and filming of "Four Hundred Blows", bad news came - Bazin, who was only 40 years old, died of leukemia. With an infinite nostalgia for his spiritual mentor, Truffaut was in a hurry, by which time he had planted his wings and the New Wave movement was ready to take off.
In 1959, "Four Hundred Blows" was released, and Truffaut became a hit in the world film industry. Subsequently, his sharp attitude and naughty boy's temperament were once again healed by the movie, and he became gentle.
Stills from "Four Hundred Blows"
In 1969, 11 years after Bazin's death, Truffaut filmed Wild Child.
"Wild Child" is ostensibly a story about whether barbaric biological people who have been separated from human society since childhood can become civilized social people through education. But what really moves the film is the poetic and moving relationship between Dr. Itad, played by Truffaut, and Victor, the wild child.
The film shows Bazin's influence on Truffaut, who is both a father and a teacher, but unlike many "adults" who use authority to give orders, Itad is so close to Victor's needs, with almost infinite patience, constantly creating and improving methods to reach Victor's heart.
Wild Child poster
It can be said that it is the respect and freedom that Bazin gave Truffaut, so that a teenager who almost went astray and loved to watch movies finally got on the right track, opened a new chapter in his life, and even influenced an era.