Six classic films from the great French film director: The 400 Blows, Shoot the Pianist, Jules et Jim, Anne and Muriel, Finally, Sunday! and The Woman Next Door.
'The 400 Blows' (1959), Truffaut's semi-autobiographical first feature, stars Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel, an unruly young Parisian whose unhappiness leads him into trouble. Frequently running away from school and home, Antoine spends much of his time playing with his friends on the streets of the city; but events take a more serious turn when an accusation of plagiarism leads him to quit school and the theft of a typewriter lands him in trouble with the police.
In 'Shoot the Pianist' (1960), Truffaut portrays a film noir world of gangsters and intrigue, with Charles Aznavour as a famous concert pianist who leaves his former life behind to play in a sleazy Parisian bar. He gradually becomes involved in the criminal activities of the big-city underworld.
'Jules and Jim' (1962) is a classic tale of a love triangle which takes place over 20 years, both before and after World War I. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the beautiful and unpredictable woman who maintains a delicate relationship with two friends, the quiet German Jules (Oskar Werner) and the romantic Parisian Jim (Henri Serre). The War intervenes and drives the men to the opposing fronts; afterwards, the two quickly resume their friendship, but the balance of their relationship with Catherine is now upset by more adult concerns.
'Anne and Muriel' (1971) was Truffaut's second adaptation of a Henri-Pierre Roche novel (the other being 'Jules and Jim') and is also about a menage-a-trois, although this time set in nineteenth century Wales. Claude (Leaud), an aspiring young French writer, spends a holiday on the Welsh coast with an English family and falls in love with the two daughters, Ann (Kika Markham) and Muriel (Stacey Tendeter).
Truffaut's final film, 'Finally, Sunday!' (1983) is a comedy thriller with a Hitchcockian theme. Shot in the style of a classic American thriller - in crisp black and white - a company boss (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is accused of murdering his wife (Marie-Christine Vercel) and her lover (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), and the evidence seems to support this. Whilst he is hiding from the police, his secretary (Fanny Ardant) takes on the role of detective and she uncovers illicit love affairs, prostitution rings and skeletons in everyone's closets before she identifies the real culprit.
In 'The Woman Next Door' (1981), the ghost of a tempestuous affair is reawakened when two lovers, estranged for 10 years and now both newly married, coincidentally move next door to each other. Truffaut wrote the leading roles especially for his two stars, Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.
