Scan barcode
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
5.0
Ah Truffaut or Godard, like Elvis and The Beatles, Goobers or Raisinettes it's one of those decisions that helps pinpoint where you are on the pop culture map.
I'm firmly a Truffaut man and this book is a good example why. Truffaut walks the walk not merely talks the talk. For all Godard's talk about love of cinema all I see in his films is contempt. Though I know intellectually he must have done so it's difficult for me to imagine him giving a film like Vera Cruz the time of day. The difference between the two reminds me of something that Ebert said, "Great writers (Nabokov, Dickens, Wodehouse) make it look like play. Almost-great writers (Mann, Galsworthy, Wolfe) make it look like Herculean triumph. It is as true in every field; compare Shakespeare to Shaw, Jordan to Barkley, Picasso to Rothko, Kennedy to Nixon. Salieri could strain and moan and bring forth tinkling jingles; Mozart could compose so joyously that he seemed, Salieri complained, to be "taking dictation from God."
While Godard's semi coherent oh so clever Marxist Pastiche's practically scream at the audience LOOK HOW ARTFUL I'M BEING. Truffaut's are content to merely flit along possessed with a verve and skill unmatched in modern cinema. Keaton is the only other filmmaker I can think of who even approaches his uninsistant grace.
The story of Godard and Truffaut is simply proof positive that the good die young and the bastards live forever.
I'm firmly a Truffaut man and this book is a good example why. Truffaut walks the walk not merely talks the talk. For all Godard's talk about love of cinema all I see in his films is contempt. Though I know intellectually he must have done so it's difficult for me to imagine him giving a film like Vera Cruz the time of day. The difference between the two reminds me of something that Ebert said, "Great writers (Nabokov, Dickens, Wodehouse) make it look like play. Almost-great writers (Mann, Galsworthy, Wolfe) make it look like Herculean triumph. It is as true in every field; compare Shakespeare to Shaw, Jordan to Barkley, Picasso to Rothko, Kennedy to Nixon. Salieri could strain and moan and bring forth tinkling jingles; Mozart could compose so joyously that he seemed, Salieri complained, to be "taking dictation from God."
While Godard's semi coherent oh so clever Marxist Pastiche's practically scream at the audience LOOK HOW ARTFUL I'M BEING. Truffaut's are content to merely flit along possessed with a verve and skill unmatched in modern cinema. Keaton is the only other filmmaker I can think of who even approaches his uninsistant grace.
The story of Godard and Truffaut is simply proof positive that the good die young and the bastards live forever.
rltinha's review against another edition
4.0
Um belíssimo conjunto de textos cinéfilos, honestos e incisivos. Truffaut é contagiante no seu amor ao cinema, na candura com que confessa defeitos e estados de alma, na humildade perante os que se lhe afiguram gigantes na sua arte.
Recomenda-se a leitura a todos os que gostam de cinema.
Recomenda-se a leitura a todos os que gostam de cinema.
roakapple's review against another edition
Long-term work in progress as I won't read particular essays until I've seen those films.
mattshervheim's review
4.0
François Truffaut is best known as a director of some of the greatest films to come from the French New Wave – The 400 Blows, Shoot the Piano Player, and Jules et Jim (and those are just his first three films!) – but Truffaut was first a film critic, a role he indulged even after becoming a director. The Films in My Life is a compilation by Truffaut of some of the best of his writings on film, reaching from the silent era to years after the advent of the France New Wave. The reviews he chose are primarily positive, though a few enjoyable acidic reviews are included.
Above all, Truffaut was a lover of cinema, and he writes as only someone who loves and understands the craft could. (In this, he reminds me of Martin Scorsese.) As film criticism alone, the book would be worthwhile, but The Films in My Life also shows a unique glimpse at one of history's best directors. Truffaut mentions three films more than any others in his reviews: Renoir's The Rules of the Game, which he loved, The Bridge on the River Kwai, which he hated, and Resnais's Nait et Brouillard, a short film about the Holocaust that seemed to have made an indelible impression on him as person, not just as a critic.
In reviewing Edgar Ulmer's The Naked Dawn (which, by the way, Truffaut praised) in 1956, he compared the film to Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roché, which he calls "one of the most beautiful modern novels I know." He concludes the comparison by writing "that The Naked Dawn is the first film that has made me think that Jules et Jim could be done as a film." Of course, Truffaut himself would adapt that same novel just 6 years later.
It's just those sorts of details that makes <i>The Films in My Life</i> so rich and rewarding. It's a list of great films, a masterclass in how to think and write about movies, a history of cinema, a glimpse inside the Nouvelle Vague, and an unique picture of one of film's true heroes.
For films lovers, The Films in My Life is absolutely worth seeking out.
Above all, Truffaut was a lover of cinema, and he writes as only someone who loves and understands the craft could. (In this, he reminds me of Martin Scorsese.) As film criticism alone, the book would be worthwhile, but The Films in My Life also shows a unique glimpse at one of history's best directors. Truffaut mentions three films more than any others in his reviews: Renoir's The Rules of the Game, which he loved, The Bridge on the River Kwai, which he hated, and Resnais's Nait et Brouillard, a short film about the Holocaust that seemed to have made an indelible impression on him as person, not just as a critic.
In reviewing Edgar Ulmer's The Naked Dawn (which, by the way, Truffaut praised) in 1956, he compared the film to Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roché, which he calls "one of the most beautiful modern novels I know." He concludes the comparison by writing "that The Naked Dawn is the first film that has made me think that Jules et Jim could be done as a film." Of course, Truffaut himself would adapt that same novel just 6 years later.
It's just those sorts of details that makes <i>The Films in My Life</i> so rich and rewarding. It's a list of great films, a masterclass in how to think and write about movies, a history of cinema, a glimpse inside the Nouvelle Vague, and an unique picture of one of film's true heroes.
For films lovers, The Films in My Life is absolutely worth seeking out.
ninomagro's review against another edition
En lisant ce livre, on comprend facilement pourquoi François Truffaut était un grand réalisateur. Il ne faisait pas que voir des films, ils les observait. Il faisait tout pour les comprendre. Et il transmettait son savoir et ses découvertes aux autres à travers ses écrits. Les films de ma vie est un des meilleurs livres que j’ai pu lire sur le cinéma, et est sans aucun doute une des meilleures façons de comprendre cet art.
More...