Francois Truffaut Auteur Director

Francois Truffaut is a French film director whose works span form the years 1959 to his death in 1984. He was one of the first, most famous and most acclaimed directors whose films represented the French New Wave movement during the 1960s in French Cinema.

Francois Truffaut's films often focused on representations of existentialism. This means that the films feature characters who do not wish to abide by the rule of authority figures and such lead rebellious lives. These films often portrayed a characters goals of individual freedom which their protagonist would either eventually reach or fail in trying to reach under the hands of authority.

Examples of Francois Truffaut's films that present this are the acclaimed Antoine Doinel series including 'Les Quatre Cent Coups/ The 400 Blows' (1959), 'Baisers volés/ Stolen Kisses' (1968), 'Domicile conjugal/ Bed on Board' (1970) and 'L'Amour en fuite/ Love on the Run' (1979) which involved a young boy who rebels against both his parents and his teachers to lead his own life, each film presenting a certain time in his life. 

In the aforementioned 'The 400 Blows' (will refer to the English translation from now on), Antoine's life is a near copy of Truffaut's own childhood. This is where Francois Truffaut can be considered an auteur. Truffaut's childhood is reflected onto Antoine Doinel. For example, Francois Truffaut chose to not attend school in order to pursue his own goals and was also separate from his own parents, not being under their guidance as a child; instead he lived with other relatives. The film also comments on cinema being a good source of education. Truffaut is showing both his appreciation for cinema but also reflecting on how  he would often visit the cinema instead of going to school, sparking his own love of filmmaking.

Francois Truffaut's auteur traits feature in several other films of his. These films all present existentialist ideas which Truffaut himself believed in. There would always be a character that would act against those deemed or stereotypically portrayed as authority figures. 'Jules et Jim' (1962) for example, features a woman dominating two men, causing them to fight over each other. She also dresses up to look like a man at certain point in the film to protest against how society would have viewed how woman should be like or act in the 1960s.

Truffaut is most definitely an auteur due to his presenting of his own opinions and reflections on his won life through characters used to create an expanded view of his own ideology.