Silken Skin

Silken Skin
(La Peau Douce)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
France, 1964
Cornerhouse, 29 May 2011

A welcome opportunity, following the release of the documentary Two in the Wave, to take another look at Truffaut’s art.

The film is about the wreckage wrought by love – a married man embarks on an affair – and it can be read as a distortion / deformation of Chekhov’s famous story about the lady with a small dog.

Everything moves forward at breakneck speed: planes must be caught, appointments kept, phone calls made and, of course, impulses acted upon.  It is a film that’s concerned with many things : the pace of the modern world (and this was in 1964) and, perhaps as a consequence, the neglect of what’s important; the perversity of chance.  There is a lot of humour, which derives in the main from hypocrisy and the need to maintain appearances.

Above all, Truffaut’s film is about Eros, the eruption of sexual passion into a settled life.

Two in the Wave

Two in the Wave
(Deux de la vague)
Directed by Emmanuel Laurent
France, 2010
Cornerhouse, 25 May 2011

‘I hardly have the impression that I’m exaggerating when I say that cinema saved my life.’

Truffaut’s words express his passion for cinema, a passion that drew him towards and then later apart from Godard.

This documentary examines the relationship between the two men, both key figures in the Nouvelle Vague.  They began as allies, Truffaut even writing the screenplay (ostensibly, at any rate) to Godard’s first feature A bout de soufflé.  It seems something of a cliché, or perhaps a smokescreen, to say that artistic differences was the cause of their falling out, but here it seems to have been true.

At some point, and especially following the events of protest in 1968, cinema became a political tool for Godard.  His work became much more engaged, radical, politically committed.  Whereas for Truffaut, cinema was always a lyrical art form.  That, above all.  He never lost a naive cinephilie.

Watch to the very end of this superb documentary and you’ll see a touching interview / screen test with a very young Jean-Pierre Leaud, for the role of the schoolboy in Les quatre cents coups.  There are many other riches here too, in a film that is pretty much essential viewing for all lovers of French cinema.

Here are two related postings, both book reviews:

The French New Wave: Critical Landmarks

Unraveling French Cinema