A Portrait Of FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT An Interview with Franco! ‘Truffaut by Suni Mallow “1 don’t look at what | am shooting through the camera very much, but | do talk things over with the cameraman and discuss the lighting and framing. | would much rather keep my eye on the acting and actors than deal with the camera.” SUNI MALLOW: Why take a film about firmaking? TRANCON, TRUFFAUT: Thad every teason i the world to make ai ike that, But I shink your question shouldbe, “Why did you, Francois Truffa, wait then yeas to make a film on fl making?’ | cannot aeawer your Gis er thon the way I would for any ordipary film publiaton because your readers ae filmatakers and they should know. To the readers of Filmmakers Newsletter” itis Obvious why I made this picture; so the only question ig why did wal 0 lon to do it. e in my films 1 have always carefully avoided fnaking any alsions Yo fs apd fimmaking, or a Best made very indirect Mons tthe cmemns which could never really bother ine viewing publi becuse they look atthe filme very naively. But tavethought about making + movie about filmmaking for many yeas, For instance, ach time | make a flim chink to myself that Tost make a film. about. fm making, and ake notes in alittle Book Keep fan my. pocket. | expecially took tes While was shooting TWO. EN Tistt Cit.s and SUcIT A’ GORGEOUS KID LIKE Mt SM ‘Then why did you finally find it necessary 10 let the mudinee fom the mystique of flmmaking? cause fought tha, although ti 2 job just ike anyother, filaking i ‘italy much move interesting chan moat Uther occupations, tn French films they really do rot know how to depict some far beter a that For instance, when you have scene with someone working or instance, a guage, you se the penn working just the way tin real fe, On the otter hand, in-France they would have'a shot of him just coming up fom tinder a ar and wit his hands of arg, throwing down, and then the dato sans You could sy that | made DAY NIGHT justas some American diectors have male fins about hunting o Hsing For instance, a fil like very rich Toward Tas’ ATARI, In Gat fil there are many wews of hunting, and a though T sav it many times, cach time 1 had the impression that i was exactly you decide to 29 FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER like a film about filmmaking. And 1 am quite convinced that Hawks felt the same Way too. You would watch John Wayne leading the expedition into Kenya with his group around him, and in the evening they would stop and have a meal and there would be @ litte bic of dancing and. they would discuss their plan for the next day — which was just like the working schedule for a film. For instance, they would say, “Tomorrow we will hunt gi raffe,” and then the next day there would be a scene of hunting 2 giraffe. So al though it was indirect, | think that con- sciously it was very much a film about filmmaking, SM: When you conceive of a film, do you ‘work initially from a visual concept or from a dialogue/situation one? FT: That depends very much on the par cular scene in the film, When I am writ: ing a seript for a film there are some scenes which I can see immediately and which are very clear in the mind’s eye, while other scenes are less clear and just come about as lam shooting them, It has been my experience in films that when | have had something visual very strongly worked out beforehand, it's really been a disappointment. Whercas quite often the things that haven't been worked out visually beforehand, and which aren't fixed in my mind’s eye, turn ‘out to be some of the more interesting shots. SM: Do you ever work out shots or scenes very carefully and very precisely beforehand, the way Hitchcock does? FT: The only time | ever really: worked ‘out anything in great detail like that was in PANIRENHETT 451, But | don't work like that for my French films. Obviously the form of the film and the senpt are there beforehand, but I like to work things out as 1 go. Or, for instance, Hike to spend a Sunday working on the seript for the next week's shooting SM: Then how do you handle your ac- tors? Do you allow them great freedom for portrayal and improvisation, or do you control their every move, perhaps ‘even use them almost as props? FT; The treatment varies with each actor. For example, Valentina Cortese in DAY FOR NIGHT did some improvisation, but there was none at all with Jean Pierre Au: mont, On the other hand, Jacqueline Bi set was the fiat actress Pd worked with thac | hadn't met before, So in her cise Kept her role very vague because | had to find out the Kinds of words she coul use tnd what she could say correctly im French before 1 could put into her fines words which I fle she could use everyday Zs pao ber vocabulary SM, What about the scone where you make a dialogue change for her based on Something she has sit off the at of the Filnwithieasfilm, "Met Pamela”? te that typical of your style as a director? ‘That is you change actors” dialogue as You get to know them better off the st Tcl believe, Rohmer doce with is IT Ves, it happens sometimes, Particw larly, for example, with Jeanne Moreau SM: Why did you use Miss Bist ~ that in put yourself in positon of wing an actress you dda’t know, with whom you fad never worked, and of whose French you were uncertain? Fr Bur there was really no problem, tad I fed all the details of what I wanted in the ea actress in DAY FOR NIGHT ite 2 computer, the computer would. have fold me to take Jacqueline Bisct. For in Stance, | wanted her to be English and yet famous for having done films in America she has members of her family who were French; and she has something myster= bus about ber face. $0. for all those Jacqueline Base tn fact, | as 30 st om having her that 1 sent hera cable asking er to be in the film more than a year before T Bogan Shooting jut eo ensure that | could Bave her and she would. be fre, She brings Tollywood tothe fms sh bring that spect of America ino the film because she has made films here and people have and. such actors is Steve. McQueen In BULAITT I remember particularly liking her in TWO FOR THE ROAD, yer she way nly film she had to go into the country ith Abert Finney and she caught chicken pox and the. fim_coorinued om with Audrey Hepburn, went to sce that film Several times because I kept hoping tha DECEMBER 1972,cone time I would se aversion in which it was Audrey Hepbum who got the chick: fn pox. And fle bit of al ofthat was put inco the dialogue of DAY FOR Sic SM: What about the scene in STOLEN KISSES. where Leaud isin front of the Iiror and he repeats names over and over and over: Did you plan that out very areflly for Leand, oe was that his own creation? FFT: That was completely improvised dor ing shooting. You se, I needed the scene tcause the character has nobody in the film in whom he can confide, yet there was a_point nthe fin where He had to onfide in somebody because he didn't ienow with whom he was in love, So this was his way of showing that he was tom between the eo women, SM In DAY FOR NIGHT, did you use different fie techniques to distinguish the filmevithinsheilm from the rest of the film? For instance, oldstyle Holly twood techniques when you were doing "Meet Pamela and perhaps modern cin cmicreriteaype techniques for the ret of the fm? FI Very much 50. For instance, part of the film is done with the camera hand held, wheres for "Meet Pamela 1 never show this; thats, I never show a seene svhich x shor witha handheld camer, SM: Was the fixed camera on that crane we see so. ofven? FT. No, | rately used the crane. SM: A'35mm camera isa heavy pice of quipment to put on a shoulder. What sytem did you tae? FT: Wel, fiat of all the cameraman was excellent and. you could hardly sez it move. And then we used the Panavision system, which 1 think tery fine. SM: How much direc involvement do Yyou personally have in che technical as- ects of a production? Fr: 1 dont look at-what 1 am shooting though the camera very much, however ao talk things over with the cameraman land discuss the ightng and the framing But I would much rather keep my eye on the acting and the actors than del with the camera. And I never cover myself when I shoot, | take it only from one Ingle and don’t make extra shot from, Say, the sides. I believe that every shot has only ONE angle, ONE lens. SM: Do you feel the sume way about the eating? "That. there i only one way 8 seene ean be editeds FT. There are often things that can be changed, and as you work you discover 00d idess from what you see inthe cut SM How closely do you supervise the cutting ofa pitore? Fr I work very closely with the editor dnd lok a it continually with him und the end SM: For some people the fil is made in the camera, in the shooting; for others i is almost entirely worked out in the iting. tm your work, do. you emphasize ‘one over the other? x u FT: No. I lke every stage of the flm- making process. But while | lke to do theses, detest all the pre-production work because itis fll of anxiety. | love the actual shooting, and the cutting and the mining are fascinating. SM: In the case of DAY FOR NIGHT You were working with your own sript ‘When you use someone ee's materia as the basis for a fm ~ say the novel for JULES AND" JIM or ‘TWO. ENGLISHL GIRLS ~ how aueto the original do you feel you muse be? FT: am always changing a 1 go along. But sometimes like the words o phrases {oo much and will sick foo faithfully to the orginal, However, | defintely prefer to work on my own materia, and ! hope {hae in the furore Iwill not da any move Adaptations and will work only from my oxiginal screenplays. SM: What are your favorite shots in DAY FOR NIGHT? Fs 1 find parcularly entertaining the scene in the film where Alexander (Aur mond) and I are going up the stairs tothe Cutting room anda ve ate going up the crane ‘is coming up at the same ie, Then as we go bebind the Moviola the camera 200m in on us and frames us very tightly. This pleased and amused me very rch because the way it urns out shows how it_was done and how Hollywood would’ do that sore of thing ~ with the rane coming up and then tooning dre imatically in on this crummy litle eutting oom a the top of these rickety old stairs, SM: Are there any scenes which are not in the final version of the film? And if so, Why were they eut? For budget reasons? Length? They simply didn't. work vis ually? FT? Yes, there are one or two scenes that are not there, but it was because 1 felt they weren’t well enough acted. SM: What is your overall opinion of DAY FOR NIGHT? Does it match up to your expectations? FT: 1 think the film is twenty minutes too short because there was alot 0 say. 1 was 90% satisfied with the dialogue and probably 60% satisfied with the visual. In the visual, I had the sun in certain scenes, and I hate bright sunlight in. color films and have dishiked i for several years now. But I dida't have the means to do the Scene over another day. And there are probably some other faults here and there throughout the picture, SM: Is that usual with your pictures — that only 60% pleases you? FT: Yes, about that. But in FAHREN- HEIT 431 T think ie was maybe better visual SM: How much docs your partial satis: faction have to do with budget? In other words, are you forced to accept some- thing because you do not have the money to reshoot? FT: Yes, I would have liked to have had another week to shoot — but I didn’t due to the devaulation of the dollar. (Between the time 1 gave my budget to Wamer Brothers and'the actual shootin, the de~ valuation occurred.) The schedule was or- FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER Z3Bisset and Leaud in a scene from “Meet Pamela.” “Meet Pamela,” the film within DAY FOR NIGHT, is the tragedy of a man and his daughter-in-law who fall in love. He is shot by his son and she is killed in an auto accident. Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Aumont. Aumont plays Alexander, an aging French actor who made it big in Hollywood as “the Continental Lover.” In “Meet Pamela” he is Ms. Bisset’s father-in-law. 24 FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER iginally for eight weeks, but 1 had to do it fn seven, But | am very much against di rectors who hide behind the production company or the distributor for errors ‘which have been made in the film; I think the director is totally responsible for the film no matter what, SM: In the film the ending of “Meet Pam- cla” is changed because of the death of a member of the cast but also because of financial pressures from the backers. To what degree must you, Francois Truffaut, as a well-known artist and director, bend the content of your films to financial pressures? FT: Personally 1 do not often worry myself with this aspect. In fact, I am in complete agreement with these factors and with the capitalist system. Film is an object, and it costs a certain amount of money, so 1 find it completely normal and usual that concessions should be ‘made for that, The other system is the socialist system, and I do not care too much for that system because you write your script, then give it to the gover ment agency, then wait for many weeks and months to find out whether or not you can even shoot it, then wonder Whether or not it will be shown and whether or not it will be exported, That is the socialist system, and there is only that system or the capitalist system. But the capitalist system is to my way of thinking more natural Tn the ending of DAY FOR NIGHT what I hoped to show was that the direct- ‘or of a film is not unhappy with acci- ‘dents, The accident which occurs at the fend and changes the shooting is a good thing; it is stimulating. The scene in the projection room where they are discus- sing Alexander's death in the picture be- gins on a sad note because of his death in Teal life, but as it progresses you can see that the director is excited — he realizes he doesn't need the scene that he had or- iginally intended. When he comes up with the idea of shooting Alexander in the back, he is very excited about the idea and says, “Yes, we'll shoot him in the back. It will be even better that way be ‘cause it's more eruel!" And the script girl, who is used to working with this director land who knows his character and what he likes in his films, says, “Yes, and we could shoot the scene in the snow!” And T think this excitement and pleasure comes over in the film. So on the one hand there is the anx: iety of the director. For example, on weekends 1 am very afraid and 1 don’t like the actors to go skiing because they could break theie legs. But on the other hand, when something happens which was not planned I simply accept it be cause the world just keeps going around and the film must keep going forward as if it were something alive. Accidents should be transformed into something good, something favorable and positive for the film, and I hope that | showed DECEMBER 1979this. So it is for this reason that I don’t ike to make plans on the financial side fas to alaptto all hese problems, Anat think chat ts the truest aspect of DAY FOR NIGHT, because it shows how I re SM Many directors enjoy that moment then. something. unaccownted. for bape pens and they have to change the script, Bue its. different when you have 0 change it because the distibutors or the backers fel that i will be more viable commercially if its changed Fr Now [don’t like that ether, Butt so happens that this has never happened 0 meeAmerican, companies a peshape fad om American directors (I don know for sure, but with French directors they are very liberal and very easygoing. This is partally because they. cannot” read French and a budget and a cast and they fred to influence me. For instance, DAY FOR NIGHT was produced by lob Solow for Warner Brothers, and he is a Sery nice man, He came onthe set several times and he seemed very happy and f Sat Te this the first time you've been funded by an American company? TT: No. | made four file for United Ar Fas with David Picker and in France with Ilya Lopert when he was alive, And i was ‘ery eaty for me to work with them, The fist was THE BRIDE WORE. BLACK, then STOLEN KISSES, then MISSISSIP. PLMERMAID, and ‘the THE. WILD Glut. The only dificuty 1 had was in getting them to agree to let me do THE MILD CHILD in black and white But I was adamant about that, s0 although it traffic, | finaly wom and got them iM What was the budget for DAY FOR Nicur? : $800,000. SM: That's eerainly not much Fs Ie was enough, because the big se the Pans sect © existed before (ie was built for THE MAD WOMAN OF CHAL LOM) and the largest att of DAY FOR TGITT was shot outside the studio on xcept the two doors in the Valentina TAs, I worked very quickly and used actually working at the same time SM Ty. $800,000.» typical budget for PT: No, | usually work with less, WILD IUD, for stance, was made for under $400,000. That was avery Tee fm SM: Would you ever like to do a multe miligndollr Hollywood-ype spectacle? FT: No, Definitely no, | don’t think that ts necessary. My most expensive film was FANRENTIEIT 431 because it wat shot mt Pinewood Studios in England and it DECEMBER 1973 Julie (Jacqueline Bisset) says goodbye to her husband, Dr. Nelson (David Markham). Julie’s childhood as a Hollywood star led to an emotional breakdown and marriage with her understanding middle-aged doctor. “‘La Nuit Americain’ has a double meaning. First it means day-for-night shooting. But it also means the one love night between Jacqueline Bisset and, |Jean-Pierre Leaud. Perhaps it should have been called ‘La Nuit Hollywood.” FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER 25used a lot of special effects and we work- ed very slowly ~ too slowly. That film cost about one and a half million dotlars. But that's much too expensive, And I think Universal lost a good deal of money fon that film and that makes me very sad, I don't like to make someone lose money; [want to make everybody happy with my work, SM: In your book on Hitcheock you ‘mention that French crities often make a pun on the French “la nuit” (night) and say “Tennui” (boredom). Were you at all ‘conscious of this when you titled the film LA NUIT AMERICAIN? FT: No, I had forgotten all about that. But “La Nuit Americain” has a double meaning. Fits, it means “day-fornight.” ‘That is, when we shoot a night scene dur ing the day. But it also means the one love night between Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Pierre Leaud. Perhaps it would have been more correct to cal it “La Nuit Hol lywood.” SM: Would you like to work in Holly- ‘wood someday? PT; Maybe yes, maybe no, But at any tate it is too early for that because I ‘would have to speak English much better than I do now, SM: In America, the director is treated almost like a god: everyone jumps at his slightest whim and they surround and coddle him constantly. But the director in DAY FOR NIGHT was not the center of attention all the time. Is the represen- tation of the director as modest and kind and self-effacing the way you, Francois Trufaut, actually operate and sce yourself asa director on a set? PT: Yes, although I think the personality ‘must be on the screen, I don't want to be “obvious in real life; it is not necessary. 1 don’t like the army, and I don’t like the conception of the director as an army general. I don't, for instance, like to give orders. | make my films exactly like 1 write, but I need some people around me even when I write, But the director is the only man on whole film, Everyone else has only a par tial view — che lighting, sound, props, ete Only the director knows what he wants ‘and what exactly the film will be, So he must be like a doctor or a lawyer and be reassuring and helpful. And he must hide his anxiety, his temper, his doubts; he must be kind and pleasant, I know that is not always true and that there are direct- ‘ors who are very excitable and get very angry, but not me. SM: Why did you decide to play the part of the director yourself? FT: I didn't want to take an actor for that part and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to do it, After all, for me it was perfectly natural SM; Didn't you find it difficult to both ‘act and direct at the same time? FT: Not too much. It was far more diffi- cult in THE WILD CHILD because that film was a period film and involved cos- umes and 1 was always afraid of making Truffaut with Alexandre Stewart (center) who plays Stacey, an actress who signed for a role in a film without admitting she was pregnant, and Natalie aye, the script girl who says, “I'd be willing to give up aman for a film, but never would | give up a film for @ man.”” 26 FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER anachronisms with improvisations. But that wasn't the case in DAY FOR NIGHT. Actually it was quite easy for me, except for a few scenes where I had some characters behind me and I was con- ‘cerned about how they were playing the scene and I couldn't be sure. So in those cases 1 was a little anxious ~ but only a litle. SM; What about the scenes where the di rector is unable to sleep and keeps think ing ot half-dreaming about the film. Was that an accurate portrait of you as a di- rector? FT; No, that is not true. I sleep very well ~ and especially when I am shooting a film, But it was necessary for the narra- tion — and exactly for the same reason I said before when you asked about Leaud in STOLEN KISSES repeating names in front of the mirror: he has no one to con: fide in and talk to. In DAY FOR NIGHT, have people to confide in ~ particularly the script girl, Joelle, who is very good and very efficient, Bur it seemed to me correct to portray the direetor as a lone- ly, solitary person. Wherever an actor or a writer or any fone participates in a film for the first time, itis always a big surprise to discover to what extent the director is lonely. Ev- erybody has mentioned this particular point to me, And even people who have worked in films before, the day they make a film for the first time, with allthe responsibilities it involves, it is a great dis- covery for them to see to what extent the director has a feeling of solitude. SM; Why did you have the director wear a hearing aid? FT: The director is partially deaf and itis a symbol for various things. Its a symbol ‘of my difficulty with the English lang: tuage. Itis a symbol of the isolation of the director and of voluntary isolation from the external world, Also, I really do have trouble with my cars, And I think that the problems of communication interest me very much because 1 did do WILD CHILD where the child is deaf and dumb. ‘And also I wanted to make alittle dffer- fence between myself and the others and yet | did not want to go through all the problems of make-up. I just wanted to Show that Ferrand, the director, is not Quite Truffaut. I would put in the hearing aid just before shooting, ‘SM: One of the director's lines in the film is that film in the studios is dead; films from now on will be made in the streets. Is that your view of the current trend of filmmaking? FT: No, In France we are slowly destroy: ing the studios to make houses and office buildings, but 1 still chink chat films will keep on ‘telling stories and that studios will continue to exist. SM; Are you very. interested in such things as cinema verite techniques? FT: Cinema verite was in fashion twelve years ago and I think there are things to bbe learned from it, but I don't like to let DECEMBER 1979,the actors find their own dialogue. Even if | use words out of their vocabulary, 1 like to do the dialogue myself. 1 think cinema verite is very good for films which have a high percent of reportage, but as a film technique it is something ‘which T find interesting for others but not for me. IM: What are some of your favorite films? FT. Well, PSYCHO and REAR WINDOW are two. They ate very perfect films. REAR WINDOW jis a film about film- making, a8 Hitchcock himself explained in the book 1 did with him, A man is watching life just as he would watch a film, CITIZEN KANE, also, is a film which is very well done, 1 also liked Dal: ton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN very much. It was very odd but very beautiful But if | was a big American producer, 1 would give money to Leonard Kastle t0 make two or three films because | think HONEYMOON KILLER was one of the best American films in many years. The film is human and very anti-cliche; it is very real and at the same time’ very strong. And I think the actors in the film are excellent! SM: If a young filmmaker came to you and asked what he had to do in order to be a good filmmaker, what advice would you give him? Would you, for example, tell him to watch Hitchcock movies? Or g0 to film school? Or work in Super if necessary just to keep making films? PT; 1 don’t know. 1 see nothing wrong with making films in Super-8. But I really can’t answer that because I do not like to give advice. Each person must do what is best for him DAY FOR NIGHT isa little bit as if you were seeing me, And then there are the books — the Hitchcock book I dis for instance, and the books about me. 1 don't know why, but I prefer to be known by my work rather than by my self, And I feel the same way about other Gircetors, For instance, when Jeanne Moreau calls me and asks me to join her and Orson Welles for dinner, I always say no, 1 would prefer to watch CITIZEN KANE one more time, But maybe [ am wrong, I don’t know SM: But you wanted to meet Hitchcock and ask him questions? FT Yes, but that was to make a book, And now, of course, 1 like to see him because the book has helped us to be come friends, But usually I do not like to meet the people | admire, It's not that 1 am afraid of being disappointed; it’s just that I like indirect communication, 1 ‘would rather know a wellknown writer by his book chan meet him personally [And I feel the same way about a director, absolutely. Many, many students want to meet me but I am very afraid of that. 1 would rather have them watch JULES AND JIM or THE WILD CHILD. | say 10 myself that 1 really have nothing to tell them. I think the best is in my work, DECEMBER 1973 Leaud and Truffaut with Jacqueline Bisset, who plays Julie Baker, an English} lactress who has come to Nice to star in “Meet Pamela,” the film-within-the| film of DAY FOR NIGHT. Truffaut and Valentina Cortese, who plays Severine, the aging, hard-drinking| actress who forgets her lines more often than not and opens wrong doors on the set. Behind them is Nike Arrighi, who plays Odile.