French Film Masters Exhibition Poster

"Resnais and Truffaut: French Film Masters Exhibition" curated by the Shanghai International Film Festival announced the news of the film festival on December 7. This year marks the 90th birthday of French film director and film critic François Truffaut. He directed the film "The Four Hundred Blows" in Paris in 1959, which launched the New Wave of French cinema, and went on to produce a series of highly acclaimed works. He was a leading figure of the French New Wave and one of the most important directors in the history of film. In 2012, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Truffaut's birth, the Shanghai International Film Festival screened his "Four Hundred Strikes", "Jul and Jim", "Running in Love", "The Last Metro" and "The Last Metro" in the "Salute to the Master" unit. Representative works such as "The Flower on the Wall" and "The Case of Love and Murder".

Among Truffaut's works, the "Antoine Pentalogy" started by "The Four Hundred Blows" is undoubtedly the most special group. This is the most legendary 20-year collaboration in film history: From 1959 to 1979, the same director (François Truffaut) used the same actor (Jean-Pierre Léaud) , has filmed five films with the same character (Antoine Duvanel) as the protagonist, and simultaneously experienced the childhood, youth and adulthood of the actor and the character, creating a story on and off the screen.

In 2021, "Antoine Pentalogy" completed a new 4K digital restoration. This time, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Truffaut's birth, the French Film Masters Exhibition specially invited this newly restored Antoine series, and hoped to invite the audience to see Antoine's life in one day through a marathon screening. Homage to Truffaut and the New Wave.

In 1959, fledgling Cahier Cahire critic François Truffaut arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with his feature debut, The Four Hundred Blows, a 13-year-old boy living with his mother and stepfather. The film of the little boy Antoine conquered the judges and won the best director award, and the new wave of French cinema entered the international stage.

The actor who played Antoine, Jean-Pierre Leaud, was 15 years old at the time. He met Truffaut in September 1958 when he auditioned for "Four Hundred Strikes". Attention, the two became attached to each other.

In 1962, Truffaut, together with five directors including Andrzej Wajda and Marcel Ophuls, co-directed the compilation film "Twenty Years Old Love", which was composed of five short films. When Fau conceived, he thought that Jean-Pierre Léaud was 18 years old at this time, which was the right age to interpret a young and ignorant first love story, so he continued to use Antoine as the protagonist and shot the short film " Antoine and Colette tells the story of Antoine's pursuit of a girl named Colette.

In 1968, Truffaut tailored a new film "Stolen Kiss" for the 24-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud. The film also continued to develop following the age of Jean-Pierre Léaud The story tells the story of Antoine's vacillating love between two women after returning to Paris after serving in the military.

In 1970, Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Léaud collaborated on "Married Life". The film originally hoped to end Antoine's story here, so Antoine was arranged to get married and had emotional problems after marriage. the plot.

In 1979, on the 20th anniversary of the release of "The Four Hundred Blows", Truffaut thought of giving the role of Antoine a real end, so he collaborated with Jean-Pierre Léaud in "Love Run" . The film tells the story of Antoine's reminiscences of the past after divorce, thus marking the end of this unique, intimate and touching screen cooperation that lasted for 20 years.

During the 20 years from 1959 to 1979, Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Léaud made achievements in their respective fields. One became the standard-bearer of the New Wave of French film, and the other became the screen god of the New Wave of French film. Their age Although there is only a 12-year age difference, they love each other like father and son. Many stories in Antoine's five-part life have Truffaut's own experience. In a sense, Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Leigh The character of Antoine, co-created by Aude, is to restore the essence of art.

"The 400 Blows" (THE 400 BLOWS, 1959)

© André Dino

What to watch: It started a new wave of French cinema

The debut feature film directed by the French film master Truffaut, adapted from his childhood experience, tells the story of the young protagonist Antoine who lives with his mother and stepfather, but he cannot get the love of his family, nor can he bear the rigid school life. After hitting a wall, he was sent to a juvenile prison. Truffaut boldly used Jean-Pierre Léaud, who has no acting experience, to play Antoine, and the latter played Antoine's naughty and confused. When the filming started, André Bazin, the editor-in-chief of Cahiers de la Cahiers, who was in love with Truffaut as father and son, died, so Truffaut dedicated the film to Bazin. The film won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, which not only opened the new wave of French cinema, but also the greatest consolation to Bazin.

"ANTOINE AND COLETTE" (ANTOINE AND COLETTE, 1962)

© Raymond Cauchetier

What to watch: First love is infinitely good, but she didn’t get it

"Twenty-Year-Old Love" is a collection of short films directed by five directors each. The segment directed by Truffaut is "Antoine and Colette". The film is tailor-made for Jean-Pierre Léaud at this time. It tells the story of the 17-year-old Antoine who fell in love with the girl Colette at first sight and pursued boldly, but Colette has no interest in him. The film is adapted from Truffaut's personal experience, but the place where the protagonist meets is changed from the French film archive to a concert. Marie-France Pisil, a beauty of the same age as Jean-Pierre Léaud, starred as Colette after being discovered by Truffaut in an audition, and became a star in the French film industry in the future. The birth of this film also announced the official opening of the "Antoine" universe.

STOLEN KISSES (1968)

© Raymond Cauchetier

What to Watch: Antoine's Lost Love

Truffaut's romantic comedy for 24-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud tells the story of Antoine, who returned from the army and tried several jobs after returning to Paris. A story of vacillation between Biana. The film fully demonstrates Jean-Pierre Léaud's dry humor, which is Truffaut's tribute to the early silent comedy. Claude Jade, who was discovered by Truffaut for his stage play, made his debut on the big screen as Christine, and Fabiana was played by Dephine Dephine, who starred in "Last Year in Marienbad". Seyrig. During the shooting of the film, there were public protests caused by the dismissal of the director of the French Film Archive, Langlois, so Truffaut dedicated the title of the film to Langlois. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Married Life (BED AND BOARD, 1970)

© Pierre Zucca

What to watch: Antoine becomes a father

Another romantic comedy created by Truffaut, it tells the story of Antoine, who is married to Christine, and has a crush on a Japanese woman after his wife gives birth. Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade continued their roles in "Stealing a Kiss", tacitly interpreting the changes in the heart of a young couple from newly married to his wife's pregnancy. It especially resonated with the audience. In the film, Truffaut continued to pay tribute to various movie comedy masters (even finding actors to imitate Tati's signature moves), and expressed his love for Claude Jade through Antoine's mouth, but unfortunately the screen After all, these two failed to achieve positive results. The film won the National Association of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

LOVE ON THE RUN (1979)

© Dominique Le Rigoleur

What to watch: Where is Antoine going?

The final chapter of the Antoine series tells the story of Antoine falling in love with the girl Sabine after divorcing Christine. Colette reunited with him at the train station after reading his published autobiography. This film has the meaning of summarizing and reviewing Antoine's past 20 years, so a lot of clips from the previous Antoine series are interspersed in the film. The clips of Truffaut's works starring El Léaud made the 20-year-old viewers of the "drama chaser" like Antoine, who were embarrassed by the interspersed images of old love and new love and fell into "difficulty in choosing". The film was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival, and Georges Deleru, the queen music master of the French New Wave, won the César Award for Best Soundtrack.

Film schedule (reminder: please refer to the actual film schedule of the theater)

Ticket Information

Billing time:

December 9th (Friday) from 12 noon.

Ticketing platform:

Taopiaopiao app

Maoyan movie app

Open the Tao Piao Piao or Maoyan app, find "Da Guangming Cinema" and "Tianshan Cinema-Wanping Theater Cinema", search for the corresponding movie and show to buy, and at the same time, you can view the movie introduction.

Screening theater:

☆Shanghai Daguangming Cinema

Address: No. 216, West Nanjing Road, Huangpu District

☆Tianshan Cinema-Wanping Theater Studios

Address: No. 859, Zhongshan South Second Road, Xuhui District