TCM's Friday Night Spotlight in July: Francois Truffaut

Francois Truffaut

Friday nights in July are going to be hot, and I’m not talking about the weather where I live. Beginning tonight and on the 12^th, 19^th and 26^th, Turner Classic Movies will feature hour after hour of the films of one of the pioneers and masters of the French New Wave, Francois Truffaut (1932 – 1984). Film Critic David Edelstein of New York Magazine and NPR’s Fresh Air, hosts the series.

Coincidentally, I’ve been catching up with and revisiting Truffaut on my own lately. It started when I was putting together a birthday tribute to the French actress Francois Dorleac in March. Dorleac worked with several legendary European filmmakers in her brief but notable career – Philippe de Broca, Jacques Demy, Roman Polanski, Ken Russell - and Truffaut. I'd seen Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966), Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and set out to find de Broca's That Man from Rio (1964), Russell's Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and Truffaut's The Soft Skin (1964). I’m still looking for That Man from Rio, but did manage to get my hands on Billion Dollar Brain and The Soft Skin.

Jean Desailly and Francoise Dorleac, The Soft Skin (1964)

The Soft Skin has never been one of Truffaut’s better known films. When it screened at Cannes in 1964, the crowd booed and, in its time, the film was generally dismissed as conventional and disappointing. Following as it did on the heels of his innovative and much-admired earlier works - The 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano Player (1960) and Jules and Jim (1962) - The Soft Skin was derided by some as Truffaut’s bid for mainstream acceptance. Stuffy New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, who famously fell badly out of step with the times in the ‘60s, called it “a curiously crude and hackneyed drama.” However, as so often happens, with the passage of years came reassessment and The Soft Skin, though still relatively obscure among Truffaut’s films, has gained a reputation among film buffs as one of his stronger efforts. A deceptively straightforward but suspenseful modern domestic drama, it deals with the sudden and ardent extramarital affair of a celebrated literary scholar, and features affecting performances by its two stars - Jean Desailly as the besotted intellectual and Francois Dorleac as the beautiful young thing of a flight attendant who turns his well-ordered life upside down. Georges Delerue, the award-winning composer who scored 11 Truffaut films, composed a striking score evocative of the frantic pace and emotional disconnect that marked the Space Age. 

Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut

The Soft Skin was the first of four films in what is known as Truffaut’s “Hitchcock cycle,” a group of films he was working on at the time he conducted and published his now-famous interviews with the Master of Suspense, each of which reflects Hitchcock's influence. The Soft Skin was followed in the cycle by Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Mississippi Mermaid (1969). All but Fahrenheit 451 will be screened on TCM this month.

In June, when it aired as part of another TCM Friday Night Spotlight series, I recorded Shoot the Piano Player, Truffaut’s inventive and completely charming New Wave classic. Unpredictable, by turns comic and tragic, its special charms are accentuated by a charismatic and perfectly cast star, Charles Aznavour, and Delerue’s infectious,  jazzy score. I found it irresistible and watched it twice in a sitting. This put me in the mood for yet more Truffaut, and I very soon revisited one of his early ‘70s classics, Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Day for Night (1973), a delightful celluloid homage to filmmaking, the great love of Truffaut's life.

 

Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud, Day for Night (1973)

TCM's Friday night series includes 21 Truffaut films, from The 400 Blows, his first feature, to his very last, Confidentially Yours (1983). See full program schedule below. 

Click here to read Martin Scorsese’s moving tribute to Francois Truffaut for TCM in his current “Scorsese Screens” column. 

Friday Night Spotlight: Francois Truffaut 
(begins 8pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific)

July 5

The 400 Blows(1959) stars young Jean-Pierre Léaud as Truffaut’s alter-ego Antoine Doinel in his troubled adolescence

Antoine and Colette(1962), a film short with Léaud as Antoine Doinel; Marie-France Pisier co-stars as the woman with whom he becomes obsessed

Stolen Kisses(1968), Truffaut’s second feature-length film, with Léaud again as Doinel who, by this time, is leaving military service and adapting to civilian life; with Delphine Seyrig and Claude Jade

Bed & Board(1970), the third installment in “the Doinel cycle,” stars Léaud, with Claude Jade as his wife

Love on the Run(1979), the last in the Doinel series, with Léaud as Doinel, Jade as his ex-wife, and flashbacks to footage from the earlier films

The Green Room aka/Vanishing Fiancee (1978), the story of a man unable to stop grieving the death of his wife, starring Francois Truffaut, Nathalie Baye and Jean Daste

July 12

The Bride Wore Black(1968) with Jeanne Moreau in a Hitchcockian tale of a new bride’s single-minded vengeance, with Jean-Claude Brialy; based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich

Confidentially Yours(1983) - Jean-Louis Trintignant and Fanny Ardant star in the story of a wrong man accused

Mississippi Mermaid(1969), starring Catherine Deneauve as Jean-Paul Belmondo’s mail order bride; adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel

Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972), a black comedy with Bernadette Lafont as a beautiful woman in prison who recounts her life story to a sociologist

Shoot the Piano Player(1960) stars Charles Aznavour as a one-time concert pianist who seeks anonymity but can’t escape his past

July 19

The Soft Skin(1964), This story of a literary highbrow who falls madly for a beautiful young woman was allegedly inspired by true stories of adultery and mayhem; starring Jean Desailly, Francoise Dorleac and Nelly Benedetti

Jules and Jim(1962) with Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre in the tale of an ill-fated love triangle

Two English Girls(1971) stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as a young French writer who has romantic involvements with two sisters

A Story of Water(1961), co-directed with Jean-Luc Goddard, is a short film about a young woman determined to leave her village and go to Paris; with Jean-Claude Brialy and Caroline Dim

The Woman Next Door(1981) is Fanny Ardant, who unwittingly becomes the new neighbor of happily married Gerard Depardieu, her former lover

The Man Who Loved Women (1977) stars Charles Denner as Bertrand, a compulsive womanizer whose skirt-chasing has fateful consequences, with Brigitte Fossey and Leslie Caron.

July 26

Day for Night(1973) with Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Francois Truffaut and Nathalie Baye – Truffaut’s timeless paean to moviemaking

The Last Metro(1980), set in Paris during the Nazi occupation, stars Catherine Deneuve as an actress whose director-husband is Jewish and must go into hiding

The Wild Child(1970), about a boy literally raised by wolves, starring Francois Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Cargol

The Story of Adele H(1975) with Isabelle Adjani as Adele, the high-strung daughter of renowned 19^thcentury poet/novelist/dramatist Victor Hugo, who becomes romantically obsessed with a military officer

Jeanne Moreau, The Bride Wore Black (1968), poster art

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A Birthday Tribute to Francoise Dorleac

Francoise Dorleac, older sister of Catherine Deneuve, was born in war-ravaged Paris on the first day of spring, 71 years ago today, March 21, 1942, and lived just 25 years more.

Catherine (top) and Francoise

Her father was Maurice Dorleac, a stage and screen actor, and her mother, Renee Deneuve, was an actress who re-voiced Hollywood films in French (including Judy Garland’s in The Wizard of Oz). Both Maurice and Renee were prominent performers at the Comedie Francaise. Sister Catherine was born a year-and-a-half later, in October 1943. With their parents in the theater, acting did not seem an unusual profession to the girls. Catherine would later recall, “For us, it was a job like any other.” She and Francoise grew up sharing a bedroom and a bunk bed, and each would go into “the family business” at an early age. 

Francoise first performed on the stage when she was 10 and made her screen debut at 15 in the short Mesonges (1957). Later, supporting herself as a model for the house of Dior, she studied acting at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. As an in-demand model and actress, Francoise led a wildly busy life from her teens to the end of her life. She appeared on stage (among her roles was "Gigi"), on TV, in magazine spreads (including Vogue) and covers, and on film. Over the seven years from 1960 – 1967 she was featured in 16 films, notably:

Philippe de Broca's New York Film Critics award-winning and Oscar nominated That Man from Rio (1964), co-starring Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Francoise Dorleac, That Man from Rio

Francois Truffaut's once maligned, now acclaimed The Soft Skin (1964)

Roman Polanski's award-winning Cul-de-sac (1966)

Jacques Demy's Oscar nominated The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), co-starring her sister Catherine

Francoise Dorleac and Catherine Deneuve, The Young Girls of Rochefort

Her final film was Ken Russell's Billion Dollar Brain (1967), co-starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer

In Europe, Francoise was likened to Garbo and Dietrich. In the U.S.,  Look magazine featured a June 1965 spread on "The Sister Stars of France," 'sweet' Catherine and 'soignee' Francoise.

During the filming of The Young Girls of Rochefort in 1966, a reporter from L'Express sat down with Dorleac and Deneuve for an interview. Their affection for each other as well as a playful competitiveness came through as the two, then 24 and 23, discussed their lives and careers.

Francoise and Catherine

Francoise chatted about her desire to be less nervous before the camera and  to stop "hiding behind" her hair;  Catherine talked about needing to be less stiff on camera. Francoise, who had so seriously pursued an acting career, seemed intent on becoming a great star. Catherine, who had not initially taken acting that seriously, seemed determined to become a better actress. Both admitted that while they were extremely busy and making very good money, they were "broke."

The two discussed their family resemblance and physical differences, with Catherine commenting on Francoise's gamine delicacy and Francoise remarking on her sister's "very sweet face." 

At the time, Catherine, who had already given birth to director Roger Vadim's son, was married to photographer David Bailey. Francoise's long engagement to actor/dancer Jean-Pierre Cassel (who later recalled his deep love and "terrible, destructive passion" for her) had finally come to an end. She and Truffaut had briefly been an item a few years earlier and she would be involved with high profile photographer's agent Albert Koski at the time of her death.

Francoise Dorleac and Jean-Pierre Cassel, Twenty magazine, 1964

As the interview wound down, the subject of youth and age came up.  Francoise admitted that, at just 24, she didn't like to think about aging or mortality. She added, "I fear the end, I'm afraid of death."  She would be lost the following summer, the victim of a fiery car crash near Nice in June 1967.  Many years later a reporter asked Catherine Deneuve about the low point of her life. She responded that it had been the death of Francoise. She paused and softly spoke of her sister as a lovely actress, a beautiful woman and "my closest friend." 

Catherine and Francoise

Francoise did not have enough time to achieve her dreams, but in the handful of films she completed during her lifetime lies tangible proof of her talent and her potential. Catherine did, as she hoped, become a better actress - and she became more than a star, she became a legend.

Francoise Dorleac

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