I film della mia vita

by François Truffaut, Antonio Costa (Translator)

"Diventato regista, mi sono sforzato di non stare troppo a lungo senza scrivere qualcosa sul cinema, ed è la pratica di questo doppio ruolo, critico-cineasta, che mi dà oggi l'audacia di esaminare la situazione un po' dall'alto, come il Fabrice della Chartreuse de Parme, se avesse avuto la fortuna di sorvolare Waterloo in elicottero."
Visti dall'alto, e non senza lo spessore di autoironia, che è proprio delle persone davvero geniali, i film degli altri (a cui Truffaut ha dedicato la sua attenzione critica nel corso di una ventennale attività di recensore, poi riorganizzata in questo volume) appaiono come un insopprimibile contraltare dei suoi film, della sua attività di uomo di cinema: non tanto una sequenza di approvazioni e stroncature, allineate per esprimere personali inclinazioni e scelte di gusto, quanto piuttosto un insieme ricco e multiforme di materiali, situazioni, spunti, apprezzamenti, destinati a incorporarsi nella pratica cinematografica, nel lavoro di regia; idee e regole da adoperare come una lezione per sé, prima che come giudizio sulgli altri.
E' una passione critica quella di Truffaut, che non contraddistingue tra generi, mode, tecniche e generazioni: Renoir e Aldrich, Hitchock e Kazan, Bergman e Rossellini, così come cento altri autori, amati e meno amati, solo l'occasione per un discorso sul cinema, sulla sua capacità di saldare finzione e realtà, in ultima analisi di arrivare diritto al gusto dello spettatore, di risultare avvincente:"Esiste nell'idea di spettacolo cinematografico una promessa di piacere, un'idea di eccitamento che contraddice il movimento stesso della vita: lo spettacolo è qualcosa che sale, la vita qualcosa che discende. Si dirà che lo spettacolo compie una missione di menzogna; ma i più grandi uomini di spettacolo sono quelli che riescono a non cadere nella menzogna, e che fanno accettare al pubblico la loro verità senza tuttavia contravvenire alla legge ascendente dello spettacolo."

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In, Memoir, France, Biography

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

François Roland Truffaut was an award-winning and influential filmmaker, critically acclaimed worldwide. He was also a talented and sought-after film critic in France (most notably, his work for Cahiers du Cinema), and one of the founders of the French New Wave and the auteur theory; he remains an icon of the French film industry. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he was also a screenwriter, producer or occasional actor in over twenty-five films.

Reviews

[Tijana]

Ko voli Trifoa, taj se raduje životu.
Elem, ovo je zbirka Trifoovih filmskih kritika, uz uvodni esej koji zlata vredi. Za one koji nisu baš hardkor ljubitelji Trifoa ili makar francuskih filmova iz pedesetih, možda je najbolje da se zadrže na tom uvodu. Zašto? Pa, uglavnom (recimo 60%) su u pitanju kritike koje je Trifo pisao za različite novine i časopise tokom pedesetih, pre nego što je počeo da snima filmove. Dakle, u pitanju su prikazi vrlo mladog i vrlo vatrenog ljubitelja filma koji već ima izgrađen i specifičan ukus, filmove gleda po nekoliko puta, i barem mene nepogrešivo vraćaju u rane dvadesete godine kad smo grupno išli u Kinoteku i posle se čupali oko tumačenja ove ili one scene. Film je ovde nešto najvažnije na svetu i pristupa mu se s dužnim poštovanjem, ali i strogošću.
Bonus poen od mene za kritiku o nekom poluzaboravljenom vesternu u kojoj Trifo napominje da je ljubavni trougao prikazan tako delikatno i precizno da mu se prvi put učinilo da je izvodljivo snimiti film po najboljem romanu dvadesetog veka, "Žil i Džim". Prikaz je napisan šest godina pre nego što je Trifo snimio tu ekranizaciju. Ljubav za naložene klince koji ne izbijaju iz bioskopa!

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must for anyone interested in Truffaut. Makes me want to dig out all his films, draw the curtains, and settle back for a whole weekend of French film heaven. Simply what a great guy he was.

[Hanan Al_Jbaili · Rating 3 out of 5]

الفن السينمائي من فكرة ونص وسيناريو واخراج وديكور واضاءة واللون والحركة بعيون من شاهد اعظم الأفلام ومن مواقع متبادلة وهي عيون فرنسوا تريفوا

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

განსაკუთრებით ფელინის და როსელინის ფილმების რევიუები მომეწონა.

[Liam Schell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love movies!!!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 The Films in My Life 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.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for a model of intelligent, passionate film criticism? This is it...

[Mohamed El seginy · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب عظيم.

[Belu Borelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

el mejor hablando de lo mas lindo del mundo de la forma mas humilde posible

[Hiba · Rating 3 out of 5]

من الواضح انه عمل متميز وجدير بالثناء . عمل متقن يطل القاريء على عالم بحاله "عالم السينما" من خلال عدسة محترف. لكن تقييمي ليس لجد العمل وانما لنفسي فلم اجد بهذا الفن ما يلاقي ادنى اهتمام لدي لاستثمره بالاطلاع على المزيد بشغف او والاهتمام بالمجال من اصله ولا افقه فيه

[Natia Morbedadze · Rating 4 out of 5]

ფრანსუა ტრიუფოს ფილმების ყურება ხომ დიდი სიამოვნებაა და არც მისი რეცენზიების კითხვაა ნაკლები. მისი დახმარებით საყვარელ ფილმებსა და რეჟისორებს ვიხსენებთ, რამდენიმე ახალსაც აღმოვაჩენთ. მეტი რა სურს მკითხველს, რომელიც ლიტერატურასთან ერთად კინოსაც აფასებს.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful essays written by one of cinema’s greatest directors and critics of film. I found this book really interesting and enjoyable.

[Will]

Long-term work in progress as I won't read particular essays until I've seen those films.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Films in My Life is a collection of Truffaut's movie reviews from 1955 to 1974. In the introduction, "What Do Critics Dream About?", Truffaut says:

"When I was twenty, I argued with Andre Basin for comparing films to mayonnaise -- they either emulsified or did not. 'Don't you see,' I protested, 'that all Hawks's films are good, and all Huston's are bad?' I later modified this harsh formula when I had become a working critic: 'The worst Hawks film is more interesting that Huston's best.' This will be remember as "la politique des auteurs" (the auteur theory); it was started by Cahiers du Cinema and is forgotten in France, but still discussed in American periodicals."

No one told me. My own movie watching, is divided between "classic" cinema, thank you TCM, modern international directors like Almodovar, and modern American movies in general. Those fiery days of the seventies, where we were so thrilled that offbeat American movies were lauded in France, are past. Except for Scorcese, Spielberg, Coppola, and Lee we are cast adrift, and now my movie watching depends on the stars, more than the directors.

The reviews are great, if often obscure.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love movies, you won't encounter a book that celebrates movies with as much intelligence, emotion, or joy as Francois Truffaut's The Films in My Life. The book is a collection of articles Truffaut wrote on movies for several magazines between 1954 and 1958.

It's a diverse anthology of film criticism, ranging from American, French, and Japanese movies, as well as movies from other Europeans and outsiders like Bergman, Rossellini, and Welles. There's also a section on movies from fellow New Wave directors. However, the book only includes about a sixth of Truffaut's film criticism. He chose to include very few negative reviews of movies because they are best left forgotten.

From an early age, Truffaut was a movie nut. He writes that "he saw his first 200 films on the sly, playing hooky and slipping into the theater without paying." He routinely watched a movie five or six times before reviewing it (and this was decades before movies were conveniently available on DVD or streaming services).

The best articles in the book concern movies by directors that Truffaut venerated as superior craftsmen, particularly Hitchcock, Welles, and Rossellini. Of the negative reviews that Truffaut chose to include, I was stunned by his views of The Red Balloon, the celebrated children's film, which he regarded as phony, decorative, and distasteful.

I was unfamiliar with some of the French films in the book, but Truffaut's criticism was such a pleasure to read I didn't mind. I'll seek out some of those movies from streaming services or the Seattle library.

Truffaut's obsession with movies was impressive; after reading this book I question my own knowledge and enthusiasm for movies. Even if I live to be a hundred years old, I could never watch as many movies as Truffaut.

[مبارك الهاجري · Rating 4 out of 5]

دخول ماتع لعالم السينما المتقاطع بشكل أو بآخر مع الأدب؛ الرواية خاصةً. فرانسوا تريفو يقول مزايا فيلم ما بطريقة تتضمن عيوبه، ويذكر العيوب ممزوجة بالمزيا. حقاً هذا شيء يدعو للعجب أحياناً وللإعجاب أحياناً أخرى. وهذا فيما أظنُّ حكم يتبع الإشارات الفنية للفيلم كفكرة وإخراج وأداة بعيداً عن الانطباع الأولي.
أحببتُ الكتاب، أحببتُ فرانسوا تريفو أيضاً. هناك عدد من الأفلام التي ذكرها رغم أنها قديمة وضعتها في قائمتي للمشاهدة.

[Adolfo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro triste para mí, porque habla con tanta pasión y cariño de algunas películas y del cine en general , que dan ganas de verlas.... y poder acceder a ellas no es fácil.... igualmente nombres de directores y cintas quedan en la retina por si se da la oportunidad.

[Luciana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Las mejores (películas) dan la impresión de abrir puertas, y también de que el cine comienza o recomienza con ellas"

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Perhaps the greatest artists are those who simultaneously resolve their own problems and those of their public. We have to begin by being born and then by knowing ourselves, and after that comes recognition. The comic artist doesn’t wait for us to come to him; he comes to us as clown, mime, buffoon, songster.” -p.54

“If you look carefully you see the whole mechanism of celebrity against a background of the absurd. The moral of the story [It Should Happen to You] is that it is easier to find glory than to justify it, and that such glory has little meaning since it is acquired within a society that is unconscious of its absurdity.” -p.105

“A naive filmmaker has almost no script problems to resolve since he is himself easily taken in by the story he is telling; he is the first sucker, the first audience. A philosophical filmmaker who’s trying to express general ideas obviously has to construct his own story so that it will be a vehicle for his ideas.” -p.184

“It is always a matter of sacrificing the film to the film, and everything depends on what we mean by the film—whether it means expressing the greatest number of ideas with the minimum of elements or whether it means showing the greatest number of elements with just enough ideas.” -p.246

“This line of dialogue from Smiles sums up a philosophy of caring that is, nevertheless, tinged with Audiberti’s mechanism: ‘What finally pushes us to the inaction of despair is that we cannot protect one single being from a single moment of suffering.’” -p.255

“We loved this film absolutely because it was so complete—psychological, social, poetic, dramatic, comic, grotesque. Kane both demonstrates and mocks the will to power; it is a hymn to youth and a meditation on age, a study of the vanity of all human ambition and a poem about deterioration, and underneath it all a reflection on the solitude of exceptional beings, geniuses or monsters, monstrous geniuses.” -p.280

“The humanity of Charlie Chaplin’s films is made of the same stuff: the necessity of three meals a day, to find work, to be happy in love. These are the best themes, the most simple and universal. Curiously, to the degree that cinema becomes more intellectual, they are the most ignored.” -p.334

“We know that by definition artists are, if not antisocial, generally asocial. Before they criticize society at large, they have already been at odds with their families who did not understand them, or who oppressed them. Their vocation is often born of a wound.” -p.335

9.5/10. A must read for cinephiles.

[Murilo Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Orson Welles adaptou para o cinema um romance policial lamentável, simplificando ao máximo a trama criminal até fazê-lo coincidir com seu argumento predileto: o retrato de um monstro paradoxal, interpretado por ele, em cujo benefício desenha-se a mais simples das morais: a do absoluto e da pureza dos absolutos. Gênio ambicioso, Orson Welles puxa a brasa para sua sardinha e parece nos dizer claramente: peço desculpas por ser um calhorda, não é culpa minha se sou um gênio, estou morrendo, gostem de mim.
Como em Cidadão Kane, O estranho, Soberba e Grilhões do Passado, dois personagens se confrontam, o monstro e o galã simpático. Tornando o monstro cada vez mais... monstruoso e o galã cada vez mais simpático, trata-se de, mesmo assim, nos fazer derramar uma lágrima sobre o cadáver do monstro. O mundo não tolera a exceção mas a exceção, mesmo que nefasta, é o último refúgio da pureza. O físico de Orson Welles, felizmente, parece impedi-lo de interpretar Hitler, mas quem garante que ele não nos obrigará a chorar a sorte de Hernan Goering?"

"ao ver certos filmes fico chocado com uma espécie de toque político artificial que parece ser tão obrigatório como a comprovação do imposto sobre veículos no pára-brisa. O puxa-saquismo de esquerda não deixa de ser puxa-saquismo e quando a injeção política feita em um roteiro é complacente, desnecessária, arrastada pelos cabelos e visivelmente praticada como "cobertura", a autenticidade do filme sofre terrivelmente; os atores se pões a falar como os jornais da semana e o diretor escorrega sem perceber para um neocayattismo: personagens teleguiados, situações previsíveis já que muito manjadas."

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects a bunch of film reviews Truffaut wrote, mainly before he started making his own movies. Actually, these are mostly reviews, but sometimes overviews of a particular director or actor, usually written when that person died.

Truffaut was one of the leading critics in Cahiers du Cinema, where many of these pieces were originally published. His enthusiasm for the films he loved is enormously enjoyable, whether I've seen the flick or not. He covers a lot of classic American directors, French directors from before his time and who were his peers, a handful of Japanese directors, and a few more odds and ends such as Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

He's pretty good at discerning key aspects of individual directors, but I actually enjoy him more when he's talking about what makes specific films work (or occasionally, not work - he purposely only included a few negative reviews, partially because he had become a director himself, and partially because he didn't want to waste space on films most people had forgotten). He's most excited when he encounters a film that has personality, liveliness, and something that makes it individual.

This is the sort of work that reminds me how important the role of a critic can be.

[Giorgi Baskhajauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

იმ ფილმების დიდი ნაწილი, რომლებსაც ტრიუფო განიხილავს, ნანახი მაქვს, მათი ნაწილი მომწონს და ზოგიც — არა, სხვებსაც ამოვარჩევ სანახავთა სიიდან და ვუყურებ ერთ დღეს, ალბათ. ახლა ამ კრებულზე რაც შემიძლია ვთქვა ისაა, რომ ტრიუფოს გულწრფელობა, ზოგჯერ რადიკალური შეფასება და წაკბენები მაყურებელზე, რომელსაც შეიძლება ესა თუ ის ფილმი არ მოეწონოს, საყვარლობაა, ეს ტექსტები ხომ რეჟისორის სიყვარულის ახსნაა სხვა ავტორების მიმართ, ზოგჯერ კი მათი კბილებით დაცვა, როცა გრძნობს, რომ შეიძლება კინომოყვარულებმა ბოლომდე ვერ გაუგონ.

"კეთილშობილებაა" იმის აღიარება, რომ გვეშინოდა და ეს სიამოვნებას გვგვრიდა. დადგება ისეთი დრო, როცა ამგვარი კეთილშობილება მხოლოდ ბავშვებს შემორჩებათ", — თითქოს ჩემს გონებაში დალურსმული ის გამოსახულება არ იყოს საკმარისი, რომელსაც ამ გამოცემის ყდაზეც ხედავთ და ერთ დროს სამუდამოდ "დავქრაშე", ეს სრულიად შესანიშნავი ფრაზაც უნდა წამეკითხა.

[Arunabh Chaliha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. Truffaut writes about his favourite films in a very personal way, he is more interested in writing about the effect the films had on them. These reviews often can inspire us to experience films in a similar and very personal way, his reviews are not complacent, but rather very poignant. The articles included in the book(esp. the one of Rossellini) fascinated me immensely.
This book feels is like his earlier films, very simple yet impactful. And let me conjure it by how he described "Vivre Sa Vie" by Godard - 'The best films open doors, they support our impression that cinema begins and begins again with them. Vivre sa Vie is one of those', for this book felt the same to me!

[VíctorM10]

Comme "cinéphile", malgré le fait que j’ai presque vu 1000 films, je n’arrive pas à tous ceux que Truffaut a critiqué au cours de sa vie. Ça sans oublier le fait que la plupart des œuvres sur lesquelles il parle sont généralement anciennes et beaucoup d’ils appartiennent à la Nouvelle Vague, un genre que, si bien est connu, il y a assez gens qui n’ont vu rien encore. C’est pour ça que je pense que c’est un livre qui devrait être lu au moment où le film a été vu par le spectateur et ensuite être lu par le lecteur.

[Islam · Rating 2 out of 5]

هناك كتب لطيفة تضيعها الترجمة
أقول لطيف فحسب، لأنه لم يكن كتابا متخصصا في الأساس. تروفو انطباعي جدا ورومانسي في معالجته، في كل الكتاب ربما انبهرت أكثر بمقالته عن أورسن ويلز، أما باقي الكتاب فكتابته تشبه الناقد الفني في صحيفة الجمهورية أو مجلة النجوم، وإن كانت ذائقته في اختيار الأفلام ذكرتني بأفلام ومخرجين في زمن اهتمامي بالسينما كما أنها جذبتني لمخرجين آخرين لم أكن أعر لهم اهتماما.

وأرجو من المترجم أن يترجم إلى الأمازيغية أفضل له من العربية. كفانا المترجمين البرابرة.

[Cora · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE FILMS IN MY LIFE is a collection of Truffaut's criticism, eulogies, and appreciation; he is a sharp writer, as good as criticism as he is at film, and I left the book with a dozen new movies that I want to see (plus I copied down a truly unhinged quote from Ingmar Bergman, just the wildest thing that you've ever seen).

Worth a read just for his memories of working as Rossellini's assistant in the 50s, if nothing else.

[Aliaa Talaat · Rating 4 out of 5]

أخذني تروفوا لبعد جديد في النقد السينمائي، هو لا يحلل أفلام بل يعاملها ككائنات مستقلة وليس عمل فني، لها روح وشخصية، طفل له أب واحد هو المخرج نرجع إليه في الفضل أو بالنقد
أسلوب تروفو في التعامل الأفلام أبهرني بالفعل، واجعلي أتجاوز على الترجمة السيئة ، وأشعرني بالإحباط لكم الأفلام التي لم أشاهدها من قبل، وأتمنى مشاهدتها يومًا ما.

[Aditya Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Specifically left out reading quite a few articles since I realized I would like to watch the films that he is so passionately writing about.

Truffaut is a virile writer, his sentences are teeming with information that he finds interesting and he tries to confess rather than inform, as if his work is all contained in his diary. This is how criticism should be modelled after, making it about the form and the context rather than just the contents of the film.

He gets quite emotional in a few passages, notably in the piece about James Dean, where his words struck me deeply at the loss of an actor and a would-be director.

He challenges the reader quite a few times in his earlier works, as he defends his fellow filmmakers and finds optimism in their rejection by the other critics. His opinions are mostly proletarian in terms of finding the pleasure in the film rather than watching it for the sake of it, and he tries to show this as well.

Being a big fan of period dramas, he has sold me Abel Gance's Napoleon with his interest in it, leaving me thinking about a film I had never watched.

Truffaut is an act in his own, and will always be inspiring to me, even as a film critic.

[Ritinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.