The New Wave at war
Truffaut directing Léaud, originally uploaded by 160507.
In their teens they worshipped at the church of Cinema. They called themselves “Hitchcocko-Hawksians”. In their 20s they defined the New Wave in French cinema. They reviewed each other’s work. They promoted each other tirelessly. Then Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard had a falling-out. Auteur Wars by Richard Brody.Â
Brody quotes from a vitriolic letter Truffaut had written to Godard. More of the letter:
“Jean-Luc. . .I feel the time has come to tell you, at length, that in my opinion you’ve been acting like a shit. . .Phony. Poseur. You’ve always been a poseur, as when you sent a telegram to de Gaulle about his prostate. . .a poseur even now when you claim you’re going to show the truth about the cinema, those who work in the background, who are badly paid, etc. When you had a location, a garage or shop set up by your crew, and then you would arrive and say, ‘I don’t have any ideas today, we won’t shoot’ and the crew would have to take it all back down again, did it never occur to you that the workers might feel completely useless and rejected?. . .You’re the Ursula Andress of militancy, you make a brief appearance, just enough time for the cameras to flash, you make two or three duly startling remarks and then you disappear again, trailing clouds of self-serving mystery. . .”
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 29th, 2008 at 07:54
Articulate vitriol like the East Coast/West Coast hip hop wars of the 90’s. Disses for everyone!
May 29th, 2008 at 17:20
This Jean Luc sounds like my boss’s wife, who incidentally also owns half the company. But of course, she doesn’t have this French guy’s style. I bet if I circulate this letter (edited, of course) at the office my coworkers would recognize her.
Unfortunately they would also recognize who circulated it.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:53
Interesting how other directors really didn’t like Godard. Found this quote by Bergman
“I’ve never got anything out of (his) movies.
They have felt constructed, faux intellectual and completely dead. Cinematographically uninteresting and infinitely boring.
Godard is a f**ing bore.”
That’s coming from someone who made freaking depressive films. I like Godard’s Weekend although I’m not a fan of his.. mostly because I don’t really get his films. Truffaut I would watch anytime. Love his 400 Blows..
I wonder how a film would turn out if all those french new wave directors had collaborated.. better yet.. throw in the surrealist directors like Bunuel, german expressionists, and italian realists. It probably wouldn’t make sense at all… but it’s fun to imagine it.
*just a sidenote: I just read the book Zeroville by Steve Erickson.. a must read novel for film buffs.