Casque d"Or and the New Wave

If you think in terms of history it is not that difficult to understand. The original scenario for "Casque d'Or" was written in the late 1930s by Henri Jeanson. At various times in the next ten years, various directors, including, in 1946, Becker, had shown interest in the screenplay. In 1951, Becker came back into the project and his first act was to "bin" Jeanson's screenplay and start all over again. In 1953, Jacques Rivette and Francois Truffaut recorded their first interview with a director, that being an interview of Becker which was published in February 1954. Remember that Truffaut published "A Certain Tendency" in January 1954, in other words Truffaut was interviewing Becker at the same time he was writing that article. Speaking of Jeanson’s screenplay, Becker called it “effective” but too “literary”.
In other words, the case can be made that “Casque d’Or” was the first “New Wave” film because the director made the conscious effort to discard a “quality” screenplay in order to shoot it in a different way. Truffaut would write in Avant Scene Cinema in 1964, “When I or any of my fellow scenarists are in trouble, we often say to each other, “How about a “Casque d’Or” solution.”
The problem was that the public and critics in France in 1953 were expecting “Le Blé en herbe” or “La Rouge et la Noir” and did not know what to make of this film.
André Bazin in Cahiers du Cinema Septembre 1955 number 50 wrote:
“The unflinching admiration of some English critics , as well as that Truffaut and Rivette for “Casque d’Or” had more and more impressed me. I was, in sum, rather near letting myself be convinced that my reviews in 1952 were unjust and that the film deserves rehabilitation. what I am saying is less than the truth. I will say here that it is not only the best of Becker but also his most beautiful....I express here my having been confused by it. Regrets for “Casque d’Or” shall be added to those for “Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne” in the conscience of this critic.”
The English critics that Bazin talks about would be the young Sequence/Sight and Sound crew of the early 50s, thus Tony Richardson (“A Taste of Honey”) Karel Reisz (“Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”) with Lindsay Anderson (“This Sporting Life”) on point.
Of course when “Casque d’Or” was re-released in France in 1963, many of its admirers had released their own films and now, like Bazin, the public was no longer “confused by it”.

Claude Berri and Milos Forman try "Hair"

In 1968, Claude Berri and Milos Forman were in pre-production in Paris on a film titled "Taking Off" with a screenplay by Jean-Claude Carriere when Forman got the idea that if they bought to buy the rights to the musical "Hair" and merge it with the "Taking Off" project. Berri traveled to London where he attended a performance of the musical and was blown away. Forman and Berri then flew to Los Angeles where the writers of "Hair", Jerome Ragni and James Rado, were. Claude Berri, in his memoir, "Autopotrait" published in 2003 takes it from there. (my translation)

"Several words about our trip and the missed rendezvous of the previous night, then they informed us that their guru was going to read the Tarot to see if it was well that Milos direct and that Claude produce the film. I looked at Milos, he was aghast, as I was. As the guru revealed the cards, I saw the faces of the authors become more and more dispirited. The Tarot were resolutely opposed to Milos directing the film and Claude producing it.
Apparently, though, we pleased them. I was thirty-three; I was young and beautiful. They had seen "The Two of Us" ("Le Vieil Homme et l'Enfant" a film Berri directed the year before) which they liked much. After several minutes, they talked it over and decided to give us a second chance. The cards were worse than the first time. The die was cast; nothing was left except for us to return to Paris, empty-handed."

The film "Taking Off" was made by Milos Forman in America in 1971 and then Forman would finally get to direct "Hair" in 1979 without Claude Berri.

Stanley Kubrick and Cahiers du Cinema to Dr. Strangelove

July 1957
The first article in Cahiers du Cinema to feature Stanley Kubrick appeared in the this issue. A writer named Raymond Haine published his only contribution to Cahiers, a short interview with Kubrick.

February 1958
Jean-Luc Godard contributes a short review of "The Killing" published in the "Notes on Other Films" section. This review begins, "This is the work of a good pupil, no more." He, then, compares Kubrick and the film unfavorably to John Huston and "The Asphalt Jungle", Robert Aldrich and "Kiss Me Deadly" and Max Ophuls and "Le Plaisir".
He goes on to say in the second paragraph, "If the screenplay is not particularly original and the final episode more so, on the other hand, The adroitness of the adaptation which, adopting systematically a "dechronology' of action, ably interests us in a plot that otherwise does not leave the beaten track."
In the conseil des dix, the film received 19 stars from 9 critics (Eric Rohmer abstained). Positif's Robert Benayoun gave the film 3 stars. Henri Agel (La Revue Francaise), Jean de Baroncelli (Le Monde), Georges Sadoul (Les Lettres Francaises) and producer Pierre Braunbarger all gave the film 2 stars, as did Cahiers regulars Charles Bitsch, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Feroun Hoveyda.
J-L G was the only critic to give the film 1 star.
The film was ranked second by the conseil that month. "The Sweet Smell of Success" was the top ranked film that month. That film got 19 stars, one more than "The Killing". Unusually, every critic gave both films the same rating, except Jean de Baroncelli who gave Sweet Smell 3 stars.

March 1958
Charles Bitsch writes a short peice for the monthly "Le Petit Journal du Cinema" detailing the censorial problems faced by the film "Paths of Glory". There were riots in Brussels when the film was shown there and so it was withdrawn from circulation. Then, students protests brought about its reinstatement before a final interdiction.
Bitsch describes the film as being "full of quality".

April 1958
The monthly Petit Journal du Cinema usually published short pieces on current events in the world of film. However, this article about "Paths of Glory" signed by R L (Robert Lachenay and thus almost certainly the work of François Truffaut) is really a review of the film which would not be shown officially in France for many years.
.
" "Paths of Glory" is to war films what "The Killing" is to film noir, nothing more, nothing less. Stanley Kubrick has talent; more, by me, than Richard Fleischer, Mark Robson or Robert Wise, less, certainly than Robert Aldrich, Robert Mulligan, or Sydney Lumet. The only audacity in this film arises simply from the fact that it excoriates the French Army which has never been inquired upon on the screen. But, is this audacity or simply an astucious manner of presenting an already proven product in a different package? "Paths of Glory" reveals the same drawbacks as "Attack" -- an objectivity which is compromised two-thirds of the way into the film -- and only some of its qualities. One retains from Kubrick's work, rather than a direction of actors non-chalantly energetic, a fine simplification of line, and, most of all, a sort of very seductively hammered rhythm, a frenzied rapidity and, let's agree on it, a filmic inspiration."

November 1961
The release of the film "Spartacus" is noted in "Films Released in Paris" section with the comment, "The most beautiful subject in the world (the birth of the idea of liberty, the Christs of Revolution) tarnished in vulgarized by a heavy-handed direction which seeks systematically for effect and botches at every shot. The titles by Saul Bass are the only great moment of the 3 hours."
The film was given no other review.
.
In the conseil des dix
2 stars -- Henri Agel
1 star -- Michel Aubriant (Paris-Presse), Jean Douchet, Morvan Lebesque (L'Express), Louis Marcorelles, and Jacques Rivette.
bullet -- Jean de Baroncelli, Pierre Marcabru (Arts)
abstain -- Claude Mauriac (Le Figaro), Eric Rohmer

July 1962
"Killer's Kiss" is reviewed by Claude Beylie. It reads in part, "This title is as exciting as one could wish, the photography grimy, but finally provoking a genuine displacement, able editing (too able with its canned "slices of time", a process perfected in "The Killing"), the interpretations of a clumsy savor, and the general ambiance of an inexpensively made film, down with very small methods. Sympathetic."
.
In the conseil des dix
2 stars -- Jean de Baroncelli, Claude Beylie, Georges Sadoul
1 star ---- Henri Agel, Jean-Louis Bory (Arts), Michel Delahaye, Jean Douchet, and Jacques Rivette.
bullet -- Michel Mardore, Bertrand Tavernier

October 1962
Jean Douchet in a round-up of films shwon at that year's Venice Film Festival wrote this regarding "Lolita" (page 46, my translation)

Thursday, August 30: Stanley Kubrick, up until now, has only had subjects which he could approach as a "grandstander", hence his unwarranted reputation. But Lolita allows easy effects only with difficulty. The result: a catastrophe. Shooting his film in England, Kubrick has adopted the cinematic style of the country -- tepid, gruel-like and spiceless. We are far from La Jeune fille, in my opinion Bunuel's best film.

March 1963
A review of "Lolita" written by Louis Marcorelles is published. Speaking of this films lack of acceptance by most French critics, he wrote, "not one from among them would think about giving Kubrick's film a second chance and see if that were not mistaken." Of the film, he will say " 'Lolita', which is one of the most biting and sarcastic films ever presented under the logo of the old MGM lion, needs to be ferociously defended."
.
The film was considered by the conseil des dix two months before in January.
3 stars -- Jacques Rivette
2 stars -- Bernard Dort
1 star --- Jean Douchet
bullet --- Henri Agel, Jean-Louis Bory, Claude Mauriac, Georges Sadoul,
abstain -- Jean de Baroncelli, André S Labarthe, Pierre Marcabru

December 1963/January 1964
Jean-Luc Godard's thumbnail critique of Kubrick is printed in the special American Cinema issue. I have provided a translation of that thumbnail which is available at:
http://jdcopp.blogspot.com/2006/08/godards-american-director-thumbnails.html

May 1964
"Dr. Strangelove" reviewed by Jean Narboni. He sums his review up by saying, "Here, thus, Kubrick in his seventh film becomes poet and moralist."
.
Conseil des dix
4 stars --- Robert Benayoun
3 stars --- Jean-Louis Comolli, Michel Delahaye, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Louis Bory
2 stars --- Albert Cervoni, Jean Collet, Jean Douchet
1 star ---- Georges Sadoul
.
Top Ten Lists (1964) published in Cahiers du Cinema -- January 1965
Jean de Baroncelli, Robert Benayoun, Charles Bitsch, Michel Cournot, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Claude Gautier, Albert Juross, Jean Narboni, Claude Ollier.

Nomination Stew

François Truffaut commenced the tournage of "Fahenheit 451" on January 13, 1966. About six weeks into that shoot, the Oscar nominations were announced and both leads in the film were nominated in the Best Acting category. Oskar Werner was nominated for "Ship of Fools" and Julie Christie was nominated for "Darling".
.

Incredibly in six months leading up to the start of shooting of Fahrenheit 451, the leads in Fahrenheit had released
Julie Christie-- Darling (Aug 65) and Dr Zhivago (Dec 65)
Oskar Werner --Ship of Fools (Jul 65) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Dec 65).
Those four films copped 25 nominations. Christie, of course, won for "Darling". Werner lost to Lee Marvin, one of his "Ship" co-stars, who won for "Cat Ballou". He also competed against his “Spy” co-star Richard Burton who was nominated for that film and against Christie's "Dr Zhivago" co-star Rod Steiger who was nominated for "The Pawnbroker"

The "young turks" and Jean Delannoy

We have all read many times of how the young critics at Cahiers du Cinema have savaged Jean Delannoy. Rarely, though, is an attempt made to specify what was said and done during these "attacks'. This is an attempt to begin to draw up a ledger of the reaction of these young critics to Delannoy.
Some Notes
The conseil des dix was a tableau where the reactions of ten critcs to recently released films were recorded. Usually it would break down to 3 to 5 Cahiers regulars and the rest from other newspapers or magazines. Some critics from other venues who would regularly weigh in would be Figaro‘s Claude Mauriac, Le Monde‘s Jean de Baroncelli, Henri Agel, Georges Sadoul, Paris-Presse’s Michel Aubriant and Positif's Robert Benayoun.
The system could be described as:
4 stars -- See it even if you have to go out of town to.
stars -- Go across town if need be to see it.
2 stars -- See it but wait till it is playing in your neighborhood.
1 star --- If you are going to the theater and it is playing, go -- it won't hurt you.
bullet --- No reason to go see it.
4 stars was used only from mid-1957 onward.

“Chiens Perdus sans Collier”
No review of this film was published in Cahiers. the November 1955 noted its released in Paris and commented, “The problems of delinquent youth which a good judge without any illusions does not know how to resolve.”
In the conseil des dix, the film received a bullet from François Truffaut as did non-Cahiers panelist Henri Agel. Alain Resnais and Jacques Rivette both abstained as did non-Cahiers critic Georges Sadoul.
The remaining five critics gave the film a total of seven stars, including one each from André Bazin and Jacques Donoil-Valcroze.
Comparison; The same panel considered René Clair’s “Grandes Manoeuvres”. Nine critics (Alain Resnais abstained) gave that film 21 stars, including Truffaut (1 star), Rivette (2 stars) and Bazin, J D.-V. and Georges Sadoul (3 stars)
.
“Marie-Antoinette”
.
This film was not reviewed, either. The June 1956 issue noted its release in Paris and commented, “Contrary to its title, it is above all, the story of Louis XVI told at the same time as that of the Queen and Fersen. This very royalist film does not move, its tone is too cold and affected, only the last scene has any beauty.
In the conseil des dix, eight critics recorded their opinions and six of them bulleted the film while the film received 2 stars in total. François Truffaut bulleted the film as did Bazin, J D.-V., Sadoul and Agel.
Comparisons: “ Voici le Temps des Assassins... ” (Julien Duvivier) The same panel (one abstaining) that month gave this film 11 stars, including two stars from François Truffaut.
.
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
.
The January 1957 published a short review of this film by André Bazin. He barely mentions Delannoy in the review but does say that he believed that only Abel Gance was up to adapting Hugo’s novel.
In the conseil des dix, the film received two stars from Positif’s Robert Benayoun, seven panelists bulleted the film, including Truffaut and Eric Rohmer.
Comparison: “The Bad Seed” was considered that month also. It received only one star, from Henri Agel. And it received 6 bullets, including one from François Truffaut.
.
“Maigret Tend un Piège”
.
Not reviewed by Cahiers, its realease was noted in the March 1957 issue with this comment, “A merited commercial success. Delannoy suits this work as does Gabin. The gifts of the second riase the hand of the first high.”
The film received 8 stars in the conseil des dix that month including 1 from Eric Rohmer. It was bulleted by one critic Feroun Hoveyda, while Jean-Luc Godard and Charles Bitsch abstained.
Comparison: Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” was considered by the same conseil. It received five stars including one each from Godard and Rohmer. Two critics bulleted it -- Robert Benayoun and Georges Sadoul.
.
“Guinguette”
.
Once more, no review for this film. Its release was noted and commented on thusly in the April 1959 issue, “Can we plead ‘attenuating circumstances’ for this nasty pastiche of national conventionalities? Jeanson refinds his youth, Jeanmaire the specter of Arletty and Delannoy is in pursuit of the eternal spectator.”
This film received only two stars, including one from Luc Moullet and three bullets, including Jacques Rivette and Jean-Luc Godard.
Comparison: “Gigi” collected 6 stars that month including one from Eric Rohmer and two from Louis Marcorelles but it also collected four bullets, Rivette, Godard and Moullet and also Georges Sadoul.
.
“Maigret et l'Affaire Saint-Fiacre”
.
This film was not reviewed but in the October 1959 issue, its release in Paris was noted with this terse comment, “From one of the dullest Maigret’s of the Arthème Fayard epoque, Delannoy has made an adaptation even duller.’
This film does not seem to have been considered by the conseil des dix.
.
“Le Baron de L'Écluse”
.
Also not reviewed on its release Cahiers merely commented,
“ Umpteenth episode in the adventures of Tintin and Audiard.”
The film was given seven bullets, including François Truffaut and Luc Moullet, among the abstainers were Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette.
.
“La Princesse de Clèves”
.
Not reviewed, it release was noted in the May 1961 issue with the comment, “Umpteenth variation on the eternal triangle.”
The film film received single stars from four panelists and was bulleted by four panelists including Jean Douchet, André LaBarthe and Georges Sadoul. Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer abstained.
.
“Le Rendez-vous”
.
Not reviewed, its release in December 1961 was noted and commented on in part, thusly, “..to cinematographic nullity, let’s add dishonesty.”
The film was given seven bullets including Jean-Luc Godard, Henri Agel and Georges Sadoul. among the three abstentions were those of Eric Rohmer and Jacque Rivette.
.
Venere Imperiale”
.
No review. Its release in May 63 was noted by Cahiers with the comment, “..Philippe Heriat thinks he is Henri Jeanson while Delannoy schemes for the laurels of Leo Johannon, a frightening collage.”
The film was not considered by the conseil.
.
“Les Amitiés Particulières”
.
This film was reviewed by Jean-Louis Comolli in the August-September 1964 issue of Cahiers as part of its coverage of that year’s Venice festival. He regretted that “Jean Delannoy did not do justice to this project.”
The film received four stars from three panelists. It was bulleted by five panelists including Jean Douchet, Michel Delahaye and Jean Narboni. Jacques Rivette abstained from venturing an opinion.
.
“Le Majordome”
.
This film was not reviewed by Cahiers. Its release in Paris was not in the June 1965 issue, “...ersatz pastiche of a parody.”
None of the former “young turks” participated in that issue’s conseil. The film got eight bullets and no stars. Among the younger Cahiers critics, Jean-Andre Fieschi and Jean-Louis Comolli bulleted the film. Among non-Cahiers critics, Georges Sadoul, Robert Benayoun, and Michel Aubriant bulleted the film.
.
“Le Lit à Deux Places”
On its release in 1966, Cahiers commented, “When the bed is not occupied, this film has no interst. It hasn’t much moer when it is.”Nine panelists bulleted the film including Jean-Luc Godard. Jacques Rivette held out as the lone abstainer.
.
“Les Sultans”
.
This film release was noted in the June 1966. The comment in the films released in Paris last month feature said in part, “Let’s propose it for the next prize Giff-Wiff.” Don’t ask. The film was given seven bullets and the other three panelists abstained.
.
“Les Soleil des Voyous”
.
On its release in June 1967, Cahiers which again did not review the film commented, “The blow of a club and anesthesia under the control of an expert.
Seven panelists bulleted the film. It received no stars.

Cahiers du Cinema May '57 some director thumbnails

The May 1957 “Situation of French Cinema” special issue of Cahiers du Cinema featured an article “Sixty French Directors” which consisted of a capsule chronology and filmography for each one and sketched out a thumbnail critique of each one of them. The ensemble is credited to Charles Bitsch, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Donoil-Valcroze, Claude de Givray, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Lachenay, Louis Marcorelles and Luc Moullet. The presence of “Robert Lachenay” in this group, probably signals the participation of François Truffaut. So-called “young turks” all except for Doniol-Valcroze.What follows are some of the thumbnails for the directors who, these "young turks" were known to have high regard. They are all my translations.

Note added October 14, 2006: Jean-Luc Godard; articles, essais, entretiens. Introduction et notes par Jean Narboni published in 1968 by P. Belfond reprints the thumbnails for Robert Bresson, Norbert Carbonnaux, Roger Leenhardt and Jacques Tati as the work of Jean-Luc Godard.

.

ROBERT BRESSON

"In today’s world, in whichever domain, France can, henceforth, shine only through exceptional works. Robert Bresson illustrates this as it applies to cinema. He is French cinema as Dostoyevsky is the Russian novel or Mozart is German music. Let’s listen to him:

“A good artisan likes that board that he is planing.”

“There is a mal-address which is indifferent to virtuosity”

“It is of such faults that the emotion of the spectator is born, an emotion similar to the one that guides us when we do what our skills condemn.”

"My metier is something of an apprenticeship which does not mean something which can be transmitted as a lesson.”

“Film is a kind of work which demands a style. It requires an auteur, a writing.”

“Break with pre-judgment in exchange for simplicity.”

“To know how to choose tools and to often choose the wrong one provides that one knows poorly.”

“It is necessary to hold back and give.”

JEAN COCTEAU

"He constructs tables and leaves to others to make them sing. “I am a designer,” he says, “It is my nature to see and hear what I write, to endow it with a formal beauty.” Translation: He is a poet. A poet gifted for cinema, a great film-maker. In fact, all his films including "The Eagle Has Two Heads”, a brilliant and moving work, wrongly underestimated, are admirable. Worried about exceeding decorative art, he achieves a realism and a crudeness, almost obscene, “Les Parents Terribles” His dialogue in spite of its theatrical emphasis and poetic inflation rings more exact than dialogue heard in films spoken of as realistic or psychological, as one of his characters says (and we are with him) “in legend up to our necks”. The sparkling and harrowing “Orphée” is like a prism which mixes all the rets of the light of a thought particularly abundant and richly dispersed, It is not surprising that this prism glistens like a diamond. Realism and dream --- “a manner of living, but of living a life retold”, he says of the characters of “La Belle”--- join each other in his work in a kind cinema at face which he knows how to realize. Friendly artisan who knows the value of the hand and the workman with an audacity and an exemplary courage. Deprived of him for seven years, French cinema does itself no favor and hobbles itself seriously."

ABEL GANCE

"He is a visionary, even a poly-visionary. It might be said of him that he is the French King Vidor, but it has already been propounded that King Vidor is the American Abel Gance.... A definition should be accurate and measured. Gance, labyrinthine and excessive, much the same as his cross-Atlantic colleague, lends himself poorly to all definition. All the good that his admirers find in his work never goes without a some qualification, all the bad that his detractors find never goes without some jealousy. If Gance is simple, it is in the fashion of Victor Hugo, like the Himalayas."

ROGER LEENHARDT

"The most subtle theoretician of film in France. He despises paradoxes, but he creates them. He despises false arguments, but he gives them. He despises cinema, but he loves it. He does not like good films, but he shoots them."

JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE

"His last two films “Quand Tu Liras Cette Lettre“ “Bob the Gambler" are not as appreciated as his first two “The Silence of the Sea” and “Les Enfants Terribles”, however, though they lack a literary basis, they are not unworthy for that. One discerns here a certain lyricism in the narrative line. Without any doubt, Melville is more of a producer than a director. The best of his inspiration, he perhaps owes to his worries for economy. He shoots with second-tier actors and directs them admirably. He uses real locations and shows them as no one shows them. If Jean-Pierre Melville has nothing to say, he says it very well."

MARCEL PAGNOL

"Generally despised by pure cinephiles, he has known for a short time now a second harvest {regain} of interest. To tell the truth, one does not know what to think. Often unbearable, wretched and botched, he surprises when we least expect it. “Manon des Sources” and “Lettres de Mon Moulin” at the best moments, We recall “Angele” rather than “La Fille du puisatier”."

NORBERT CARBONNAUX

"He changes the spelling of his name with each new film. Still his style remains a little muddled but personal, lazy but sinuous, a style more Rue Caumartin than Rue de L’Estrapade which at the same time shows Carbonnaux’s limits and his ambitions -- which are great. Intelligent enough to become commercial, he put everyone in his pocket with "Courte Tête”, a film which he did not too much like but a film which finally permitted him a “free hand”. Let’s stake Carbonnaux to a place between Alex Joffé and Michel Boisrond."

JEAN RENOIR

"Thousands of lines have been published in the magazine on Jean Renoir, they can not be summed up in a thumbnail. In every phase of his long career -- French, American, Indian, Italian and French once more -- he has proven again and again that he knows how to draw out the best in all conditions and all genres, that he will finish every time with cinematographic material which is exceptionally rich, free, highly textured, as much so on a esthetic plane as on a spiritual one. Wrongly, some have civen him grief over his evolution, As Picasso, he has his periods, -- blue, rose or black --, and throughout them, he has kept a sureness of line, a vigor of thinking and a love of metier that is exemplary. A great work warmed from within by the pleasure that he taken in making it. a great creator whose contribution radiates beyond cinema. a great twentieth-century artist who describes what he, himself, has given this century, “All that I can contribute to this illogical and cruel world is my love.”

AGNES VARDA

"The “Benjamin” of French cinema. One film, rather chinois and a little misbegotten serves to confirm the lively and unusual personality of Varda whose career still remains uncertain. The two most literary characters in the history of cinema solemnly discuss there a solid documentary on the little port of “Pointe Courte”. The hieratic quality, visual and oral, of the couple makes a drole two-some with familiar images of the village, but the ensemble raises a strange and durable charm."

ROGER VADIM

"We like him because he only speaks about what he knows, such that Butchers strive to pass themselves off as intellectuals, let’s applaud the intellectual who rather than exploiting his culture and vulgarizing his ideas, endeavors in his work to grant primacy to his own instinct and that of his actors, to the reality of the epidermis and of gestures, without forgetting the truth of feelings and phrases even more biting. Vadim has already become a part of that race dear to Cocteau, “the ragpickers of genius”. He finds his dialogue at the Elysées Club, his mise-en-scene at St. Tropez and his rhythm is the Ferrari Europa which brings him close to Roberto Rossellini. He is our only modern filmmaker."

JACQUES TATI

"With him, French neo-realism was born, “Jour de fête”, by inspiration resembles "Open City”. Less liked because it is more personal, “Mr Hulot‘s Holiday”, all the same, invites us to taste, secretly, the bitterness and pleasures of existence. Yes, Jacques de la lune is a poet as in the time of Tristan the Hermit. He looks for high noon at two PM and finds it there. He is capable of filming a beach uniquely to show children who are building sandcastles cry louder than the roar of the waves. He will similarly film a countryside only because at that instant the window of a small house in the background of the shot is opening all by itself and a window that opens itself, oh well, it’s oddly funny, at once, everything and nothing, blades of grass, a kite, children, a little old man, anything, everything which is at once real, unusual and charming. Jacques Tati has a sense of the comic because he has a sense of the unusual. A conversation with him is not possible. He is the anti-theoretician, par excellence. His films are good despite his ideas. Made by anyone else, “Jour de fête” and “Mr Hulot‘s Holiday” would seem little of anything. To sum it up, he has become after two films the best French director of comedy since Max Linder and with his third, “Mon Oncle”, Jacques Tati will maybe become the best, period."

JACQUES BECKER

"Without ever surrendering to the fashion which he knows to be unfashionable of poetic realism, he attaches himself to the most modern graces whether they are called Auteuil, Quartier Latin or Pigalle. When he had to pay his share in 1900, he avoided the trap of pastiche and he knew how to see as contemporary the subtlest appearances of a world disappeared. Jacques Becker’s art borders on chamber music, he is the Francis Poulenc of our cinema. Why does he sometimes feel himself obliged, like Edouard, to play for his concierge? Keen portraitist of a world intimate and delicate, his cinematographic phrasing, without being romantic, accommodates adjectives more than verbs. He often gladly abandons action to the profit of his characters whom he loves like a father. When comes the great work melancholy and free which everything destines him for? When the modern Casque d’Or?"

SACHA GUITRY

"Greatly underappreciated by some, borne on the shoulders of others. What has made his glory will not survive him. Neither megalomaniac jokes or so-called cynical light comedies uphold second viewings or second readings. But he can not be praised enough for this essential. Jansenist in his manner, he refuses all technical trickery, all exterior artifice: every effect rests on the expression of the actor and the least of his gestures is stylish on its face value. Let’s forget the historical insipidities since, in his best hours, the auteur of a comedy like "Assassins et Voleurs” shows us that he knows where the foundation of cinema is hidden."

ALEXANDER ASTRUC

"A lyric poet who reminds one of expressionism, but also a rigorous constructor who knows the value of American precision. This intellectual made with “Le Rideau Cramoisi” a great film of love and passion. This baroque artist, in "Les Mauvaises Rencontres ”, bore witness ton a precise aspect of post-war youth. A technique so overwhelming has been able to mask from the eyes of some the profound merits of his first feature, but the essential is this: A style and something to say. He has quite une vie ahead of him."

Bertrand Tavernier's ten best lists from Cahiers du Cinema 1961-1966

Bertrand Tavernier's tenure is usually described as being "only six months" or "when Eric Rohmer was editor" and Tavernier himself speaks of his preference for Positif which he contributed to in the same period. For the record, the on-line archive at the Cahiers credits him with 38 contributions, of which all but one are from 1961 to 1968 and it fails to reflect Tavernier's contributions to both the Dec 1962 special "New Wave" issue and the Dec 1963/Jan1964 special "American Cinema" issue. To put that number into perspective, it represents about half of Godard's 78 contributions but almost twice Chabrol's 21 contributions.
The selections in color are coded to the notes at the end.
.

1961
1......Exodus (Otto Preminger)
........Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks)
........Lola (Jacques Demy)
........Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
5......The Diabolical Dr. Mabuse(Fritz Lang)
........The Horse That Cried (Mark Donskoy)
7......Amazons of Rome (Vittorio Cottafavi)
8......The Bell Boy (Jerry Lewis)
9......Mask of the Demon(Mario Bava)
10.....The Time Machine (George Pal)
.
1962
1......The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
2......The Wild River (Elia Kazan)
3......The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis)
4......Chronicle of Flaming Years (Yuliya Solntseva)
5......Sweet Bird of Youth(Richard Brooks)
6......Hatari (Howard Hawks)
7......Education Sentimaentale (Alexander Astruc)
8......Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis (Vittorio Cottafavi)
9......My Son, The Hero (Duccio Tessari)
10....West Side Story (Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins)
.
1963
1......The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
........The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
3.......Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier)
4.......Il Sorpaso (Dino Risi)
5.......All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
6.......Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankieweicz)
7.......The Errand Boy(Jerry Lewis)
8.......Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini)
9.......Hands Over the City (Francesco Rosi)
10.....Raptus (Riccardo Freda)
.
1964 no list selected
.
1965
1.......Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
2.......Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
3.......Black Peter (Milos Forman)
4.......317th section (Pierre Schoendoerffer)
5.......A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards)
6.......West of Montana (Burt Kennedy)
7.......The Collector (William Wyler)
.........Guns at Batasi (John Guillerman)
........Gun Hawk (Edward Ludwig)
........Il Magnifico Avventuriero (Riccardo Freda)
.
1966
1.......The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (Vincente Minelli)
2....... Une Femme en Blanc se Révolte (ClaudeAutant-Lara)
.........Seven Women (John Ford)
4.......Young Torless (Volker Schlondorff)
.........Night Must Fall (Karel Reisz)
.........Objective 500 Million (Pierre Schlondorffer)
7.......Madimegella de Maupin (Mauro Bolognini)
8.......Harper (Jack Smight)
9.......Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman)
10.....For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
.
American films of the sound era (Dec 63-Jan 64 issue)
1......The Hanging Tree (Delmar Daves)
2......Pursued(Raoul Walsh)
3......Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
4......Angel Face (Otto Preminger)
5......An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
6......To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
7......Silver Lode (Alan Dwan)
8......Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
9......The Band Wagon (Vincente Minelli)
10.....The Searchers (John Ford)
.
.
.
This film(also known as “Le Nouveau Journal d'une Femme en Blanc”), a sequel to “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc”which had been directed by Claude Autant-Lara and released the previous year, is an early example of an appreciation of Jean Aurenche on the part of Bertrand Tavernier. For, although the film’s page in the IMDb lists no writing, the review in the March 1966 issue of Cahiers gives sole writing credit to Aurenche who had co-written the script for the original film with René Wheeler. Since Tavernier had not contributed a list the previous year, there is no record of his reaction to the first film which was actually quite well received at Cahiers. In the “conseil de dix” feature in the May 1965 issue only one critic bulleted the first film. Jacques Rivette gave that film three stars and Eric Rohmer gave it two. The only critic to bullet “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc” was Positif’s Robert Benayoun. Benayoun who contributed often to Cahiers’s “conseil de dix was known for routinely bulleting Godard films and in that May 65 conseil, he bulleted “Alphaville” as well as the Autant-Lara film. He also bulleted Bergman’s “Winter Light” in that issue. Rivette and Jean-Luc Godard both selected “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc” for their respective ten best lists for 1965. In 1966, Cahiers was not quite as kind to the sequel, it did not collect as many stars as the original and two critics bulleted it. Robert Benayoun participated in that “conseil de dix” but he abstained on “Le nouveau journal”

Reviews of the "young turks" from Cahiers Jan 52 to Apr 59

This posting purports to be little other than a list of films reviewed in the pages of Cahiers du Cinema from issue number 8, Jan 52, through April 59, by the "second group" or "young turks". Thus, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Jean Domarchi, Jean Douchet, Luc Moullet, Louis Marcorelles and Charles Bitsch. I have also chosen to include Chris Marker's lone review from that Jan 52 issue and Jean Mambrino lone review published in May 58. Cahiers at that time published either long reviews under the rubric "Les Films" or shorter - one column or less - under the rubric "Notes on other films". The reviews that were published as "Notes" are highlighted in red.

Jan 52
The River ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
Prince Bayaya ----- Chris Marker
No Sad Songs for Me ----- Hans Lucas (Jean-Luc Godard)
.
Mar 52
Strangers on a Train ----- Hans Lucas (Jean-Luc Godard)
.
May 52
The Lady Vanishes ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
.
Feb 53
Shchedroye Leto ----- Jacques Rivette
.
Mar 53
Tabu ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
Sudden Fear ----- François Truffaut
.
Apr 53
Affair in Trinidad ----- François Truffaut
Black Crown ----- François Truffaut
.
May 53
The Snows of Kilimanjaro ----- François Truffaut
Deadline ----- François Truffaut
.
Jun 53
South Sea Sinner/The Narrow Margin ----- François Truffaut
.
Jul 53
Five ----- François Truffaut
Europa 51 ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
Le Quatrième Homme ----- François Truffaut
The Mummy’s Hand ----- François Truffaut
Man in the Dark ----- François Truffaut
.
Aug/Sept 53
I Confess ----- Jacques Rivette
Le Père de Mademoiselle ----- François de Montferrand (François Truffaut)
Sailor Beware ----- François de Montferrand (François Truffaut)
Rough Shot ----- François de Montferrand (François Truffaut)
Charlie Chan in Mexico ----- François de Montferrand (François Truffaut)
Thunder on the Hill ----- François de Montferrand (François Truffaut)
.
Oct 53
The Lusty Men ----- Jacques Rivette
.
Nov 53
Madame de ----- Jacques Rivette
Stalag 17 ----- François Truffaut
Singing in the Rain ----- Claude Chabrol
Niagra ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Dec 53
The Big Sky ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
Le Bon Dieu Sans Confession ----- Jean Domarchi
The Hitchhiker ----- Claude Chabrol
Room for One More ----- François Truffaut
A Life of Her Own ----- François Truffaut
Tuna Clipper ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
L’Autocar en Folie ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
The Las Vegas Story ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
The Turning Point ----- Robert Lachenay (Francois Truffaut)
Quand Tu Liras Cette Lettre ----- Robert Lachenay (Francois Truffaut)
The Naked Spur ----- Jacques Rivette
.
Jan 54
The Big Heat ----- François Truffaut
.
Feb 54
Angel Face ----- Jacques Rivette
La Red -----Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Sensualidad ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Girls in the Night ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Apr 54
Touchez Pas au Grisbi ----- François Truffaut
Si Versailles m’etait Conté ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
May 54
It Should Happen to You ----- François Truffaut
A Personal Affair ----- Claude Chabrol
Never Let Me Go ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Lure of the Wilderness ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Return to Paradise ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
La Guerra de Dios ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
The Manderson Affair ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Trouble in the Store ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Jun 54
The Blue Gardenia ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
Traviata 53 ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Treasure of the Golden Condor ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Dangerous Crossing ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Remains to be Seen ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Quai des Blondes ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Jul 54
La Provinciale ----- Jean Domarchi
Flight to Tangier(N) ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Aug/Sept 54
River of No Retrun/Prince Valiant/King of the Khyber Rifles ----- François Truffaut
Infedeli ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
The Glass Wall ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Les Hommes Ne Regardent Pas Le Ciel ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
The City is Dark ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Feb 55
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves ----- François Truffaut
Pain Vivant ----- Claude Chabrol
.
Mar 55
Apache/Pushover ----- Claude Chabrol
Rebecca ----- Claude Chabrol
.
April 55
Johnny Guitar ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
Rear Window ----- Claude Chabrol
.
May 55
Voyage in Italy ----- Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer)
La Tour de Nesle ----- Robert Lachenay (François Truffaut)
.
Jun 55
A Star Is Born ----- Charles Bitsch
Vera Cruz ----- François Truffaut
.
Jul 55
The Barefoot Contessa ----- François Truffaut
The Barefoot Contessa ----- Claude Chabrol
Battle Cry ----- Claude Chabrol
.
Oct 55
Kiss Me Deadly ----- Charles Bitsch
.
Nov 55
Les Mauvaises Rencontres ----- Jacques Rivette
.
Dec 55
Land of the Pharoahs ----- Jacques Rivette
Land of the Pharoahs ----- Claude Chabrol
Hallelujah ----- Eric Rohmer
.
Jan 56
Ordet ----- Eric Rohmer
Lola Montes ----- François Truffaut
The Blackboard Jungle ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Feb 56
East of Eden ----- François Truffaut
The Big Combo ----- Charles Bitsch
.
Mar 56
The Seven Year Itch ----- François Truffaut
House of Bamboo ----- Jean Domarchi
Si Paris Nous Etait Conté ----- François Truffaut
.
April 56
The Trouble with Harry ----- Eric Rohmer
The Trouble with Harry ----- Jean Domarchi
The Trouble with Harry ----- Jacques Rivette
The Naked Dawn ----- Jean Domarchi
Cette Sacrée Gamine ----- Charles Bitsch
The Saga of Anatahan ----- André S Labarthe
.
May 56
Rebel Without a Cause ----- Eric Rohmer
Rebel Without a Cause ----- Jean Domarchi
L’Amore ----- Eric Rohmer
The Man with the Golden Arm ----- Charles Bitsch
Love Me or Leave Me ----- Jean Domarchi
Voici les Temps des Assassins ----- André S Labarthe
.
Jun 56
Lifeboat ----- Eric Rohmer
La Roman Inachevée ----- Eric Rohmer
Cela S’Appelle L’Aurore ----- André S Labarthe
Night of the Hunter ----- André S Labarthe
François Mauriac ----- André S Labarthe
.
Jul 56
Mr Arkadin ----- Eric Rohmer
Les Assassins du Dimanche ----- François Truffaut
Toute Le Ville Accuse ----- Charles Bitsch
Pete Kelly’s Blues ----- Luc Moullet
.
Aug/Sept56
Le Peur ----- Jean Domarchi
It’s Always Fair Weather ----- Claude de Givray
Private Hell 36 ----- Luc Moullet
Artists and Models/The Lieutenant Wore Skirts ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Ouragan sur la Vallée ----- Luc Moullet
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell ----- Eric Rohmer
.
Oct 56
The Last Frontier ----- Eric Rohmer
When the City Sleeps ----- Jean Domarchi
Brigadoon ----- Jean Domarchi
My Sister Eileen ----- Charles Bitsch
.
Nov 56
Elena and her Men ----- Eric Rohmer
Elena and her Men ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Picnic ----- Eric Rohmer
Invitation to the Dance ----- Claude de Givray
Korhinta ----- Louis Marcorelles
Attack ----- Charles Bitsch
La Mort en ce Jardin ----- Luc Moullet
.
Dec 56
A Man Escaped ----- Eric Rohmer
Le Pays d’ou Je Viens ----- André S Labarthe
Paris-Palace Hotel ----- Luc Moullet
The Harder They Fall ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Jan 57
Baby Doll ----- François Truffaut
War and Peace ----- Luc Moullet
...And God Created Woman ----- Claude de Givray
Guys and Dolls ----- Louis Marcorelles
Variety Lights ----- André S Labarthe
Magirama ----- Jean-Luc Godard
.
Feb 57
Hot Blood ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Lust for Life ----- Jean Domarchi
The Solid Gold Cadillac ----- Louis Marcorelles
Cinerama Holiday/The King and I ----- Luc Moullet
Tennessee’s Partner ----- Luc Moullet
Ransom ----- André S Labarthe
.
Mar 57
Bigger than Life ----- Eric Rohmer
Written on the Wind ----- Louis Marcorelles
.
Apr 57
Giant ----- Eric Rohmer
Assassins et Voleurs ----- François Truffaut
Time in the Sun ----- Luc Moullet
Court-Tête ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Calabuig ----- Luc Moullet
Al Margine della Metropolita ----- Luc Moullet
Somebody up there Likes Me ----- Luc Moullet
.
Jun 57
The Wrong Man ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Girl Can’t Help It ----- Jean Domarchi
The Crucible ----- Luc Moullet
The Incredible Shrinking Man ----- Charles Bitsch
King and Four Queens ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Jul 57
Sait-on Jamais? ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Sait-on Jamais? ----- Jacques Rivette
The Forty-First ----- Louis Marcorelles
Les Trois Font la Paire ----- Jean Domarchi
Hollywood or Bust ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Crucified Lovers ----- Eric Rohmer
Men in War ----- Luc Moullet
Viva Villa ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Aug/Sep 57
The True Story of Jesse James ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Heaven Knows Mr Allison ----- Luc Moullet
The Last Hunt ----- Claude de Givray
.
Oct 57
The Teahouse of the August Moon ----- Claude de Givray
.
Nov 57
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? ----- Eric Rohmer
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt ----- Jacques Rivette
Porte des Lilas ----- Eric Rohmer
An Affair to Remember ----- Louis Marcorelles
Retour de Manivelle ----- Claude de Givray
.
Dec 57
Sawdust and Tinsel ----- André S Labarthe
Herr Puntila... ----- Louis Marcorelles
Twelve Angry Men ----- François Truffaut
Pot-Bouille ----- François Truffaut
Le Coup de Berger ----- Claude de Givray
.
Jan 58
Bitter Victory ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Funny Face ----- Jean Domarchi
Designing Woman ----- Jean Domarchi
A Hatful of Rain ----- Louis Marcorelles
Les Fantastiques ----- Claude de Givray
Une Parisienne ----- Claude de Givray
Mr Cory ----- Claude de Givray
.
Feb 58
The Ten Commandments ----- Luc Moullet
Elevator to the Gallows(N) ----- Eric Rohmer
The Killing ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Silk Stockings ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Mar 58
The Tin Star ----- Claude de Givray
You Only Live Once ----- Jean Douchet
The Wayward Bus ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Chronicle of Poor Lovers ----- Luc Moullet
.
Apr 58
Bonjour Tristesse ----- Jacques Rivette
Kanal ----- Louis Marcorelles
Something of Value ----- Luc Moullet
LesTemps des Ouefs Durs ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Rafles sur la Ville ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Garment Jungle ----- Claude de Givray
The Man of a 1000 Faces ----- Claude de Givray
Les Ballets Bolshoi ----- Louis Marcorelles
.
May 58
The Seventh Seal ----- Jean Mambrino
Les Girls ----- Eric Rohmer
Passion Juvenile ----- François Truffaut
Montparnasse 19 ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Young Lions ----- Charles Bitsch
Sayonara ----- Jacques Rivette
.
Jun 58
Illicit Interlude ----- Jacques Rivette
This Angry Age ----- François Truffaut
Hold Back the Night ----- Luc Moullet
Paris Holiday ----- Luc Moullet
.
Jul 58
L’ Eau Vive ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Pajama Game ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Brothers Karamazov ----- Charles Bitsch
The Long Hot Summer ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Gideon of Scotland Yard ----- Louis Marcorelles
.
Aug 58
The Quiet American ----- Eric Rohmer
Jet Pilot ----- Luc Moullet
Tea and Sympathy ----- Louis Marcorelles
A Man is Ten Feet Tall ----- Louis Marcorelles
Rosa Bernd ----- Louis Marcorelles
.
Sept 58
The Cobweb ----- Jean Domarchi
Tarnished Angels ----- Luc Moullet
Baby Face Nelson ----- Jean Domarchi
.
Nov 58
Dreams----- Eric Rohmer
Une Vie ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Left-Handed Gun/Cowboy/The Bravados ----- Jean Domarchi
God’s Little Acre(N) ----- Jean-Luc Godard
.
Jan 59
Indiscreet ----- Jean Domarchi
Wild is the Wind ----- Luc Moullet
.
Feb 59
Man of the West ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Rising of the Moon/The Last Hurrah ----- Louis Marcorelles
South Pacific ----- Eric Rohmer
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ----- Louis Marcorelles
Les Tricheurs(N) ----- Eric Rohmer
The Roots of Heaven ----- Luc Moullet
Miles of Fire(N) ----- Charles Bitsch
The Vikings(N) ----- Luc Moullet
.
Mar 59
Vertigo ----- Eric Rohmer
Le Beau Serge ----- Jean Douchet
Les Rendez-vous du Diable ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Ztracenci----- Luc Moullet
La Loi ----- Jean-Luc Godard
The Law and Jake Wade ----- Charles Bitsch
.
Apr 58
Brink of Life ----- Eric Rohmer
A Time to Love and a Time to Die ----- Jean-Luc Godard
Gigi ----- Louis Marcorelles
La Femme et le Pantin ----- Luc Moullet
Twilight for the Gods ----- Luc Moullet

Jacques Rivette - 10 best films - Cahiers 1954-1966

(N.B., Selections in color are coded to notes at the end of the lists)
.
.
1954
1.......Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
2.......El (Luis Bunuel)
3.......We, the Women (Roberto Rosselini sketch)
4.......It Should Happen to You (George Cukor)
5.......Robinson Crusoe (Luis Bunuel)
6.......The Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang)
7.......River of No Return (Otto Preminger)
8.......Touchez Pas Ma Grisbi (Jacques Becker)
9.......I Love Melvin (Don Weis)
10.....Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (Robert D Webb)
.
1955
1........Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rosselini)
2........Ordet (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
3........To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock)
4........Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
5........Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
6........Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Alexander Astruc)
7........Apache (Robert Aldrich)
........Lola Montes (Max Ophuls)
9........Human Desire (Fritz Lang)
10......Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks)
.
1956
1........Night and Fog (Alain Resnais)
2........L’ Amore (Roberto Rosselini)
3........Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles)
..........Elena and her Men (Jean Renoir)
5........Fear (Roberto Rosselini)
6........While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang)
..........Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
8........The Last Frontier (Anthony Mann)
9........Picnic (Joshua Logan)
10......The Saga of Anatahan (Joseph von Sternberg)
.
1957
1........A King in New York (Charles Chaplin)
2........Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang)
3........Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
4........Saint Joan (Otto Preminger)
5........The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Bunuel
6........The True Story of Jesse James (Nicholas Ray)
7........Sunset of a Clown (Ingmar Bergman)
8........The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi)
9........An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
10......Fear Strikes Out (Robert Mulligan)
.
1958
1........Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
..........White Nights (Luchino Visconti)
..........Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger)
4........Something of Value (Richard Brooks)
..........Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
6........The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
..........The Quiet American (Joseph L. Mankewiecz)
8........The Goddess (John Cromwell)
9........Une Vie (Alexander Astruc)
..........Montparnasse 19 (Jacques Becker)
.
1959
1........Empress Yank Kwei Fei (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2........Tales of Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
..........Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein)
..........Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
5........Dejeuner sur la Herbe (Jean Renoir)
6........The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
..........Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)
..........Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
9........Head Against the Wall (Georges Franju)
10......The Tiger of Eschnapur (Fritz Lang)
.
1960
1..........Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2..........L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
............Nazarin (Luis Bunuel)
4..........Poem of the Sea (Aleksandr Dovzhenko/Yuliya Solntseva)
5..........The Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau)
............Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)
7..........Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
............Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut)
............Verboten! (Samuel Fuller)
10........Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)
.
1961
1..........Taira Clan Saga (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2..........A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
3..........Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks)
............Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti)
5..........The Young One (Luis Bunuel)
............The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
7..........La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni)
8..........Lola (Jacques Demy)
............The Human Pyramid (Jean Rouch)
10........Judgement at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer)
.
1962
(alphabetical in French)
Chronicle of Flaming Years (Yuliya Solntseva)
Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Jules and Jim (François Truffaut)
The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn)
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
Too Late Blues (John Cassavetes)
Vanina Vanini (Roberto Rosselini)
Viridiana (Luis Bunuel)
Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
.
1963
(alphabetical in French)
Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier)
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
Bandits of Orgosolo (Vittorio De Seta)
Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Chapman Report (George Cukor)
Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
Muriel (Alain Resnais)
Nine Days in One Year (Mikhail Romm)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
.
1964
(alphabetical in French)
Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Cool World (Shirley Clarke)
The Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi)
Gertrude (Carl Dreyer)
Journal of a Chambermaid (Luis Bunuel)
Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
Passenger (Andrjez Munk)
The Terrorist (Gianfranco De Bosio)
The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
.
1965
1..........Pierrot le Fou ( Jean-Luc Godard)
2..........L'Amour a la Chaine (Claude de Givray)
............Black Peter (Milos Forman)
............Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
............Journal of a Femme in Blanc (Claude Autant-Lara)
............Lilith (Robert Rossen)
............Paris vu par… (Jean Rouch sketch)
............The Gospel according to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
............La Vieille Dame Indigne (Rene Allio)
............Young Cassidy (John Ford- Jack Cardiff)
.
1966
1..........Walkover(Jerzy Skolimowski)
2..........Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman)
............Le Chat dans Le Sac (Gilles Groulx)
............Fahrenheit 451 (François Truffaut)
............The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (Andre Delvaux)
............Masculin/Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard)
............Nothing but a Man (Michael Roemer)
............Not Reconciled (Jean-Marie Straub)
............Fist in His Pocket (Mario Bellocchio)
............Something Different (Vera Chytilova)
.
1967
1..........Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
2..........Belle du Jour (Luis Bunuel)
............La Chasse Au Lion a L’Arc (Jean Rouch)
............La Chinoise/ Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
............La Collectioneuse (Eric Rohmer)
............Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha)
............Mediteraneée (Jean-Daniel Pollet/Volker Schlondorff)/Bezhin Meadow (Sergei Eisenstein)
............Daisies (Vera Chytilova)
............Playtime (Jacques Tati)
............Shakespeare Wallah (James Ivory)
.
1968
1...........The Edge (Robert Kramer)
2..........Anemone (Philippe Garrel)
............Charlie Bubbles (Albert Finney)
............Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (D Huillet/J-M Straub)
............Les Contrabandiers (Luc Moullet)
............2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick
............The Times That Are (Pierre Perrault)
............La Route Parallele (Ferdinand Khittl)
............The Shooting (Monte Hellman)
............Terre em Transe (Glauber Rocha)
.
.
American films sound era --- (Dec63/Jan64)
(chronological)Scarface (Howard Hawks)
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray)
On the Town (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
The Cool World (Shirley Clarke)
.
French films since the liberation (Jan 65 issue)
(alphabetical by director)
Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Alexander Astruc)
Rendez-vous de Juillet (Jacques Becker)
Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Robert Bresson)
Les Enfants Terribles (Cocteau-Melville)
Le Petit Soldat (Jean-Luc Godard)
Les Dernières Vacances (Roger Leenhardt)
Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
Eléna et les Hommes (Jean Renoir)
Muriel (Alain Resnais)
Les Rendez-vous du Diable (Haroun Tazieff)
.
.
In the February 1958 issue of Cahiers du Cinema only two of the ten critics in that month’s “conseil des dix” bothered to rate the film Fear Strikes Out. Jacques Rivette and Claude de Givray both gave the film three stars. A note under the “conseil des dix” tableau read:
“Know that Fear Strikes Out which was brought to our attention by Robert Aldrich and which was shown for just one week “en exclusivité”, thus explaining the abstention of the majority of our “conseillers”, is similarly strongly recommended by Jean Domarchi, Fereydoun Hoveyda, Roger Tailleur and François Truffaut”
About six years later in Cahiers special American Film issue, Jacques Rivette wrote the thumbnail for director Robert Mulligan. He begins thusly;
"The least we can say is that he really took us in. Who was the auteur of Fear Strikes Out? The producer? The screenwriter? The director of photography? But certainly not this awkward director.”
That is interesting to me because within five years the producing end of the Pakula/Mulligan partnership Alan J. Pakula -Fear Strikes Out was their first film together- would become a director himself. And Alan J. Pakula would have seemed to have eclipsed Robert Mulligan as a director. ( Klute, All the President‘s Men, Sophie‘s Choice, among others.
.
.
Before Robert Benton and David Newman sold the script for Bonnie and Clyde to Warner Brothers and Warren Beatty they shop their script for it to François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard both of whom they had ahd in mind as potential directors when they were writing it and here, Rivette includes on this list two films that are based on the story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
.
.
This film which was shown in Cannes in 1964 is so obscure that the IMDb does not even list it in Ferdinand Khittl’s filmography.
.
http://www.festival-cannes.fr/films/fiche_film.phplangue=6002&id_film=3076

Some ten best lists from Cahiers in the 60s

The Dec63/Jan64 issue of Cahiers du Cinema was a special issue dedicated to American cinema. Critics were asked to draw up their list of the ten best American films of the talking era.
.
The Jan65 issue was dedicated to French cinema and crtics were asked to draw up a list of the ten best French films since the Liberation.
.
Here are some of the American list followed below by some of the French lists.
.
Claude Chabrol
chronological
.
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
The Shaghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg)
To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray)
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
.
Jean-Luc Godard
.
1......Scarface (Howard Hawks)
2......The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin)
3......Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
4......The Searchers (John Ford)
5......Singin’ In the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
6......The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)
7......Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
8......Angel Face (Otto Preminger)
9......To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
10.....Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg)
.
Jacques Rivettte
chronological
.
Scarface (Howard Hawks)
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray)
On the Town (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
The Cool World (Shirley Clarke)
.
Bertrand Tavernier
.
1.....The Hanging Tree (Delmar Daves)
2......Pursued(Raoul Walsh)
3......Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
4......Angel Face (Otto Preminger)
5......An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
6......To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
7......Silver Lode (Alan Dwan)
8.......Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
9.......The Band Wagon (Vincente Minelli)
10.....The Searchers (John Ford)
.
Francois Truffaut
chronological
.
Scarface (Howard Hawks)
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir)
The Saga of Anahatan (Josef Von Sternberg)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
A King in New York (Charles Chaplin)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
.
.
.
The French lists
.
.
Claude Chabrol
.
1......Le Carosse d’Or (Jean Renoir)
2......Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
3......À Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard)
4......Lola Montès (Max Ophuls)
5......Le Caporal Épinglé(Jean Renoir)
6......Le Signe du Lion (except first two reels) (Eric Rohmer)
7......Les Quatre Cents Coups (Francois Truffaut)
8......Une Femme Est Une Femme (Jean-Luc Godard)
9,.....Casque d’Or (Jacques Becker)
10.....Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
.
Jean-Luc Godard
.
1......Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
2......La Pyramide humaine (Jean Rouch)
3..... Le Testament d'Orphée (Jean Cocteau)
4..... Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
5..... Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
6......Les Godelureaux (Claude Chabrol)
.
Jacques Rivette
alphabetical by director
.
Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Alexander Astruc)
Rendez-vous de Juillet (Jacques Becker)
Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Robert Bresson)
Les Enfants Terribles (Cocteau-Melville)
Le Petit Soldat (Jean-Luc Godard)
Les Dernières Vacances (Roger Leenhardt)
Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
Eléna et les Hommes (Jean Renoir)
Muriel (Alain Resnais)
Les Rendez-vous du Diable (Haroun Tazieff)
.
Eric Rohmer
.
1......Le Caporal Epinglé (Jean Renoir)
(And, in order to not name the other films of Renoir, in alphabetical order)
.
Adieu Phillipines (Jacques Rozier)
Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol)
Les Dernières Vacances (Roger Leenhardt)
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
La Proie pour l’Ombre (Alexander Astruc)
La Pyramide Humaine (Jean Rouch)
La Vie à l’Envers (Alain Jessua)
Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
.
François Truffaut
chronological
.
Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné)
La Poisin (Sacha Guitry)
La Carosse d’Or (Jean Renoir)
Nuit et Bruillard (Alain Resnais)
Lola Montès (Max Ophuls)
À Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard)
L’Enclos (Armand Gatti)
Le Testament d’Orpheé (Jean Cocteau)
Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Robert Bresson)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
.
.
I am not to certain exactly what the note that appends Eric Rohmer’s means. Was he citing all of Renoir’s post war ouevre and letting “Le Caporal Épinglé” stand in for all of them?
.
Of course there were other critics who contributed their lists and one note I have from them is that Claude de Givray listed “Une Femme Mariée est une Femme” . Leading to ask, was Claude a little confused there or did he deliberately conflate both films to make some kind of a point?

Best French Director list from Belgian Cinematheque 1958

In 1957, the Belgian Cinematheque asked 150 critics from around the world to submit their list of the thirty most important films from the beginning through 1955. One hundred seventeen critics from twenty-six nations submitted their list. They cited some six hundred and nine different films. René Clair films received 135 citations, the most for any French director. The following is the list of the twenty most cited French directors as republished in the Cahiers du Cinema issue for November 1958.
.
.
1 René Clair
2 Jean Renoir
3 Marcel Carné
4 Jean Vigo
5 Jacques Feyder
6 Abel Gance
7 Georges Méliès
8 René Clément
9 Jean Cocteau
10 Claude Autant-Lara
Robert Bresson
12 Julien Duvivier
13 Henri-Georges Clouzot
14 Jean Epstein
Albert Lamorisse
Max Ophuls
17 Jacques Becker
18 Sacha Guitry
Georges Rouquier
Jacques Tati

A note on "The Horseman on the Roof"

Commenters on the film “Le Hussard sur le Toit” (“The Horseman on the Roof”) sometimes speak of its “soft ending”. Of course the reason for that “soft ending” is that the Giono novel on which the film is based is second novel in a cycle. The story of Angelo Pardi and Pauline de Theus which commences in Giono’s “Angelo” continues, on paper at least, with “Le Foi Bonheur” and “La Mort d’un Personnage “.

lllll

That Jean-Paul Rappeneau was able to coax a film from the novel which had baffled filmmakers for over 40 years - Edouard Niermans/Jean Cosmos, Rene Clement/Roger Leenhardt, Luis Bunuel, and Roman Polanski had all tried- is a achievement. Rappeneau was quoted at the time of the film’s release as saying that after “Cyrano”, he wanted to try something considered “intournable” . Anyone familiar with the film and surprised to see Bunuel among those attempting to film this story would need to be told that the cholera epidemic is more in the foreground in the novel. The novel is often compared to Camus’ “La Peste”. Bunuel was probably attracted by Angelo’s lengthy stay -greatly truncated by Rappeneau- on the roofs of Manosque (at least four days, in the novel) and a further passage where Angelo works with a nun who cares for the victims of the epidemic. Note though the presence of longtime Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere who reportedly was brought in late by Rappeneau .

"The Last Metro" and its score

There is one question I have long asked myself about the direction of “La Dernier Métro” that I had meant to note, but forgot to, in my earlier post. In the mid-70s, Truffaut, from “L'Histoire d'Adèle H” thru “La Chambre Verte”, used music by the composer Maurice Jaubert who had dominated the musical world of French film in the 1930s and had then been killed in action early in WWII. Apparently, when Truffaut, after “La Chambre Verte”, made “L’Amour en Fuite”, he decided that Jaubert’s classical-style music would clash with the pop songs from Dorothée and he returned to Georges Delerue for the score. But when he followed that film with “Le Dernier Métro”, it is kind of surprising that he did not return to the music of Maurice Jaubert.

.
/\ /\ /\

.
In “La Chambre Verte” a photo of Jaubert conducting is prominent in Julien Davenne’s shrine of the dead.

Julien Duvivier and Cahiers du Cinema

We have all read many times of how the young critics at Cahiers du Cinema have savaged Julien Duvivier. Rarely, though, is an attempt made to specify what was said and done during these "attacks'. This is an attempt to begin to draw up a ledger of the reaction of these young critics to Duvivier.
.
Some Notes.
.
The conseil des dix was a tableau where the reactions of ten critics to recently released films were recorded. Usually it would break down to about 5 Cahiers regulars and five critics from other newspapers or magazines. Some critics from other venues who would regularly weigh in would be Claude Mauriac, Jean de Baroncelli, Henri Agel, Georges Sadoul and Positif's Robert Benayoun.
.
The system could be described as:
.
4 stars -- See it even if you have to go out of town to.
3 stars -- Go across town if need be to see it.
2 stars -- See it but wait till it is playing in your neighborhood.
1 star -- If you are going to the theater and it is playing, go -- it won't hurt you.
bullet -- No reason to go see it.
.
4 stars was used only from mid-1957 onward.
.
.
.
Voici le Temps des Assassins...
.
This film was reviewed in the May 1956 issue of Cahiers by André Labarthe. He spoke Duvivier’s techinique being "as fluid as that of Dassin" and "of a faultless appearance. He bares witness to a straightforwardness rather rare among our directors"
Nine critics gave the film eleven stars, including two from François Truffaut and two from Jacques Donoil-Valcroze. No one bulleted the film, André Bazin abstained.
.
In his recapitulation of French film for the year 1956 published in the final issue of ARTS-LETTRES-SPECTACLES of that year, Francois Truffaut would write this about this film:

"Even though Julien Duvivier isn’t a young filmmaker, "Le Temps des Assassins", made with an exemplary probity and a touching love for welldone work, is attractive, naive, falsely gloomy, and, all in all, an enterprise generous in spirit."

NOTE: The reference to "young filmmmaker" was occasioned by Truffaut's having just praised films by the younger directors Henri Verneuil and Claude Boissol.
From "The Early Film Criticism of François Truffaut" edited by Wheeler Winston Dixon and translated by Sonja Kropp.
.
L’Homme à l'Imperméable
.
This film was not reviewed by Cahiers. The March 1957 issue noted its release in Paris and commented, “Fernandel soaked in a dark story, but Duvivier does not wish to get himself wet.”
Five panelists gave the film one star, including François Truffaut. André Bazin was the lone bullet. Among the abstainers were Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.
.
Pot-Bouille
.
François Truffaut reviewed this film in the December 1957 issue of Cahiers. My translation of that review is available:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0245213/board/flat/43330214?d=44136515#44136515
Six critics gave the film nine stars in total, including two each from Pierre Braunbarger and Jean de Baroncelli. Jacques Rivette and Charles Bitsch abstained.
.
La Femme et le Pantin
.
Luc Moullet reviewed this film for the April 1959 issue. He said that it was more a film starring Brigitte Bardot than a film directed by Julien Duvivier.
Two critics (Moullet and Braunbarger) gave the film one star each. Seven bulleted it (Godard, Rivette and Louis Marcorelles plus Henri Agel, Georges Sadoul, Claude Mauriac and Jean de Baroncelli). Eric Rohmer abstained.
.
Marie-Octobre
.
This film’s release was noted in the June 1959 issue. It was called a sort of reverse “Twelve Angry Men” whose “authors hold the 90 minutes only by a series of techniques and plot twists completely artificial. The direction goes accordingly.”
Two critics gave it a total of two stars. It was bulleted by five critics, including Rivette, Godard and Moullet. While Jacques Demy, Charles Bitsch and Eric Rohmer all abstained.
.
Das Kunstseidene Mädchen
.
This film’s release was noted in the September 1960 issue with a two sentence plot summary and it was not considered by the conseil.
.
Boulevard
.
This film’s release was noted in the January 1961 issue without any allusion being made to Duvivier.
Two critics (Michel Aubriant and Jean de Baroncelli) gave it one star each.
Two from among the younger Cahiers staff (Jacques Rivette and André Labarthe) bulleted the film. Claude Mauriac and Jacques Donoil-Valcroze also bulleted the film.
Eric Rohmer abstained.
.
La Chambre Ardente
.
Release noted in the July 1962 issue with the comment, “…It is no longer necessary to speak of an unawareness or an incapacity, but of a pure and simple shoddiness.”
The film received one lone star from Paris-Presse critic Michel Aubriant. Six panelists bulleted the film, including, Jacques Rivette, André Labarthe and Jean Douchet. Michel Delahaye and Louis Marcorelles abstained.
.
Le Diable et les Dix Commandements
.
Not reviewed, its release was noted in the November 1962 issue with the comment, “The devil has dropped two or three commandments, but this monotonous Heptalogue or Hexalogue is ample enough to prove to us that, in the comic or the sentimental as well as in the saucy, Beelzebub is stripped of humor and talent.”
The film received its only star from Georges Sadoul. It was bulleted by five panelists including two from the younger staff at Cahiers, Jacques Rivette and Jean Douchet. Others bulleting the film were Henri Agel and Michel Aubriant. Eric Rohmer and André Labarthe abstained.
.
Chair de Poule
.
Not reviewed, its release was noted in the Dec63-Jan64 issue with the comment, “…flat, skimpy, without any attempt at intellectual justification.”
This film received not one star. Six panelists bulleted the film including Jacques Rivette and Jean-Luc Godard. Also bulleting the film were Godard-nemesis and Positif critic Robert Benayoun, Georges Sadoul, Jean de Baroncelli and Jean-Louis Bory.
Jean Douchet was among the abstainers.
.
Diaboliquement Vôtre
.
The February 1968 issue noted its release and Jean Narboni wrote, “…constantly flat or rehashed.”
Two critics gave it one star, including Michel Aubriant. Seven bulleted the film, including, Positif’s Robert Benayoun, Narboni, Jean-André Fieschi and Michel Delahaye .

A Certain Tendency of Truffauldian Criticism

It is often written that Francois Truffaut in his later years "softened" his positions from his time as a critic at Cahiers du Cinema and Art-Spectacles in the 1950s.
.
Reading the introduction that he wrote for "The Great French Films" by James Reid Paris, published in 1983 the year before Truffaut's death, one gets no hint of any kind of a "softening". But also, in a letter from Truffaut to Jim Paris agreeing to some changes in that introduction, a letter which is published in Truffaut's correspondence, one reads Truffaut telling that one of his prime concerns in writing this introduction is that no one being able to say that Truffaut now approves of films that he once was critical of.
.
Also, one of the projects of his last years was to collect some of his more general writings on film as a companion to his "The Films In My Life". Though he was not able to complete the project and it was eventually finished by Jean Narboni and Serge Toubiana, he had selected the title for one of the section; that title was "A little bit of polemic never hurts" and it was to include "A Certain Tendency of French Cinema", "You Are All Witnesses at the Trial, French Cinema is Caving in under its False Legends"and "Clouzot at Work or the Reign of Terror".

Some ideas on Truffaut's "The Last Metro"

One often sees the criticism of Francois Truffaut”s “Le Dernier Metro” ( “The Last Metro”) that he had turned to making films in the tradition of the films that he had scorned as a young critic in the 1950s. Of course, most of these writers are not familiar with the films that he had scorned. ( I will post a list of the films that he scorned further down.) I would say “yes” he was working in a tradition. He could almost have titled the film “Si Paris occupeé nous était conté”. Sacha Guitry was one of his heros. But he did call the film “Le Dernier Metro” and that title points to the tradition of the film and explains its style.
It is true that the early scene where Bernard tries to pick up Arlette bears some resemblance to the scene at the beginning of “Les Enfants des Paradis” in which Frederick attempts to pick up Garance. It must be remembered though that the young critics of the 50s had no ax to grind with the Prevert-Carne films of the late 30s and the first half of the 40s. Anyone who watches the clip of Godard from 1963 on the “Bande a Part” will hear him praise the Carne of “Quai des Brumes” before deprecating the Carne of “Les Tricheurs”. Even their criticism of Carne that merely photograph his screenwriters scenario, that he was more a “metteur en image” than a “metteur en scene”, had started in the mid-40s by Henri Jeanson, Carne’s one-time collaborator. But getting back to my point that scene occurring in the midst of the crowd on the Boulevard des Crime in the Carne film explains its title and theme. Carne’s film is about theater-goers, even his four theatrical protagonists all attend plays. Truffaut’s film though is not so much about the audience as it is about the theater world and hence its title “ Le Dernier Metro”.
Before I get back to my point I believe I should note here that “Le Dernier Metro” was meant to be one panel in a trilogy on the entertainment world. “La Nuit Americaine” (“Day for Night”) was of course the film panel. And “L’Agence Magique” a film about Music Hall was never made. In the late 70s Truffaut had a screenplay for this film ready to shoot and had begun pre-production but the failure of “The Green Room” caused him to alter his plans and to film “L’Amour en Fuite”.
The voice-over prologue describes an occupied Paris where night workers have to scurry to make the last metro in order to beat the curfew. What is left to our imaginations is to realize that many of these workers are theater people. Jean Marais whose real-life thrashing of the Je Suis Partout drama Alain Laubreaux provided the inspiration for one of the key scenes in the film described the last metro thusly in his autobiography “Histoires de ma Vie” (page 159)
“Le dernier métro est merveillux. Aussi bondé comme les autres. Il transporte le Tout-Paris. Tout le monde se connaît, parle du dernier concert, de ballet, de théâtre. Dehors, c’est le blackout, le chefs d’ilot, les rondes d’Allemands, les otages, si on a depassé l’heure du couvre-feu.”
“The last metro was marvelous. As packed as the others. It carried all of the theater world of Paris. Everyone knew everyone else. We spoke of the latest concert, of the ballet, of the theater. Outside, it was the blackout, the militias, German patrols, hostages if one was out past curfew.”
NOTE: “Tout-Paris” usually means “ Paris high society” but Marais in the book frequently uses in a narrower sense of “the theater world”.
In other words “Les Films de Carosse” had produced a film that represented “the last metro” as the golden coach of occupied Paris. Some quarter of a century earlier before Truffaut made “Le Dernier Metro” he with Jacques Rivette had interviewed Jean Renoir and Renoir told them that in order to do his film "Le Carrosse d'Or" (“The Golden Coach”) he had found it necessary to subordinate his style to a theatrical style. Could it be that there is one explanation of the style of the film? Question mark. So now Truffaut was returning to the style of "Le Carrosse d'Or" (“The Golden Coach”.)
Some other ideas gleaned from Nestor Almendros’ memoir of his career as a cinematographer “A Man With A Camera”. Remember the scene from the beginning of the film that I spoke about earlier, the one were Bernard accosts Arlette. I can still remember the feeling of claustrophobia that I felt the first time I saw “Le Dernier Metro”. And of course I was going to soon discover that one of the main characters in the film was hiding in a small room in the basement of his theater. Almendros speaks of using the camera to create a feeling of claustrophobia in this film. He also reveals that it was normal for Truffaut to keep his windows open. But in this film because of its theme and its time period, windows remained shut. Also, he and Truffaut wanted the look of early Agfacolor of films like “Munchhaussen” and “Die Goldene Stadt”. A look that was gentler and softer than the vivid Technicolor films of the same period. Thus the set designer were asked for ocher-colored sets and the props and costumes were chosen in subdued colors. Also they changed their film stock to Fuji because it was closer to this look they were cultivating.
As long as we are discussing Almendros I think it might be appropriate to end with a quote from his chapter on the film "La Chambre Verte" (“The Green Room”).
“As expected, “The Green Room” was not very well received. The theme of death rarely attracts crowds. This is almost an axiom in the cinema, and by producing so difficult and personal a work, risking almost certain economic failure, Truffaut showed once again that after sixteen films he was still the uncompromising artist he was as a young man.” Nestor Almendros, “A Man With A Camera” page 220.

Bertrand Tavernier - 10 best films - Cahiers du Cinema 1961-1966

Bertrand Tavernier's tenure is usually described as being "only six months" or "when Eric Rohmer was editor" and Tavernier himself speaks of his prefering Positif which he contributed to in the same period. For the record, the on-line archive at the Cahiers credits him with 38 contributions, of which all but one are from 1961 to 1968 and, even then, it fails to reflect Tavernier's contributions to both the Dec 1962 special "New Wave" issue and the Dec 1963/Jan1964 special "American Cinema" issue. To put that number into perspective, it represents about half of Godard's 78 contributions but almost twice Chabrol's 21 contributions.
The selections in color are coded to the notes at the end.
.
1961
1......Exodus (Otto Preminger)
........Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks)
........Lola (Jacques Demy)
........Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
5......The Diabolical Dr. Mabuse(Fritz Lang)
........The Horse That Cried (Mark Donskoy)
7......Amazons of Rome (Vittorio Cottafavi)
8......The Bell Boy (Jerry Lewis)
9......Mask of the Demon(Mario Bava)
10....The Time Machine (George Pal)
.
1962
1......The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
2......The Wild River (Elia Kazan)
3......The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis)
4......Chronicle of Flaming Years (Yuliya Solntseva)
5......Sweet Bird of Youth(Richard Brooks)
6......Hatari (Howard Hawks)
7......Education Sentimaentale (Alexander Astruc)
8......Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis (Vittorio Cottafavi)
9......My Son, The Hero (Duccio Tessari)
10....West Side Story (Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins)
.
1963
1......The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
........The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
3.......Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier)
4.......Il Sorpaso (Dino Risi)
5.......All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
........Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankieweicz)
........The Errand Boy(Jerry Lewis)
8......Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini)
9.......Hands Over the City (Francesco Rosi)
10.....Raptus (Riccardo Freda)
.
1964 no list selected
.
1965
1.......Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
2.......Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
3.......Black Peter (Milos Forman)
4.......317th section (Pierre Schoendoerffer)
5.......A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards)
6.......West of Montana (Burt Kennedy)
7.......The Collector (William Wyler)
.........Guns at Batasi (John Guillerman)
........Gun Hawk (Edward Ludwig)
........Il Magnifico Avventuriero (Riccardo Freda)
.
1966
1.......The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (Vincente Minelli)
2.......Une Femme en Blanc se Révolte, (ClaudeAutant-Lara)
.........Seven Women (John Ford)
4.......Young Torless (Volker Schlondorff)
.........Night Must Fall (Karel Reisz)
.........Objective 500 Million (Pierre Schlondorffer)
7.......Madimegella de Maupin (Mauro Bolognini)
8.......Harper (Jack Smight)
9.......Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman)
10.....For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)

American films of the sound era (Dec 63-Jan 64 issue)
1......The Hanging Tree (Delmar Daves)
2......Pursued(Raoul Walsh)
3......Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
4......Angel Face (Otto Preminger)
5......An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
6......To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
7......Silver Lode (Alan Dwan)
8......Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
9......The Band Wagon (Vincente Minelli)
10.....The Searchers (John Ford)

This film, a sequel to “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc", is also known as “Le Nouveau Journal d'une Femme en Blanc” is an early example of an appreciation of Jean Aurenche on the part of Bertrand Tavernier for although the film’s page in the IMDb lists no writing, the review in the March 1966 issue of Cahiers gives sole writing credit to Aurenche who had co-written the script for the original film with René Wheeler. Since Tavernier had not contributed a list the previous year, there is no record of his reaction to the first film which was actually quite well received at Cahiers. In the “conseil de dix” feature in the May 1965 issue only one critic bulleted the first film. Jacques Rivette gave that film three stars and Eric Rohmer gave it two. The only critic to bullet “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc” was Positif’s Robert Benayoun. Benayoun who contributed often to Cahiers’s “conseil de dix" was known for routinely bulleting Godard films and in May 65, he bulleted “Alphaville” as well as the Autant-Lara film. He also bulleted Bergman’s “Winter Light” in that issue. Godard and Rivette both selected “Le Journal d'une Femme en Blanc"for their respective ten best lists for 1965. In 1966, Cahiers was not quite as kind to the sequel, it did not collect as many stars as the original and two critics bulleted it. Robert Benayoun participated in that “conseil de dix” but he abstained on “Le nouveau journal”.