The Joys of Friendship!

Richard Brody writes about the friendship between Francois Truffant and Jean Luc Godard in the latest New Yorker. Brody calls them "abandoned children," who each found a path via the cinemas of Paris, together watching American films by Hitchcock and Hawks.

They became the key Surfers of the French New Wave. Their first films tell the story well, Truffant's "400 Blows," and Godard's "Breathless." And one could tell even on the first viewing of each film that these two had very different ideas about what films are, and what they should be.

As Brody puts it, Truffant was an outsider, looking to get in, and Godard was an insider, looking to get out.*

I have only seen a fraction of their collective output. But I think the last shot of "The 400 Blows," is still one of the most powerful, breath-taking moments in film. And "Breathless," changed the way I looked at French films and American films too.

Truffant is gone, Godard is still with us. They started as friends and then became diametrically opposed forces in French film. They ended up attacking the other quite brutally in letters and articles, both private and public.

Godard thought Truffant was ultimately a fraud and traitor to the cause of re-making film. Truffant, I think, was baffled and displeased by Godard's burning, lacerating contempt. Truffant had the best lines, he told Godard that he should make an autobiographical film called, "A Shit is a Shit."

Also Truffant once told Godard: "Like Sinatra, like Brando, you're nothing but a piece of shit on a pedestal."

Although, I kind of lean towards Godard's demonic approach, I must say, "Good one Truffant!" He was able to insult (maybe deservedly so), three titans in one simple but cogent line!

*UPDATE: I'm thinking I'd characterize myself as an OUTSIDER, LOOKING TO GET OUT!