Francois Truffaut
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
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Pardners (1956) |
Ferociously misogynous... The trick is thus to pretend the gagman are making fun of Jerry Lewis, but, by means of his eccentricities, women and children first are held up to ridicule. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 26, 2022
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Sailor Beware (1952) |
The film may give back some confidence to American -- and other -- spectators who are deprived of physical attractiveness by nature. Therein lies the objective of this new comic strategy. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 26, 2022
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Lifeboat (1944) |
Lifeboat is like roast beef without gravy, and whoever does not get enthusiastic about the movie will be bored to death. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 26, 2022
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Never Let Me Go (1953) |
In spite of the scoffers, I don't see anything extravagant here, nor anything you don't already know if you've already watched a few Russian films. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 26, 2022
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The Caine Mutiny (1954) |
The Caine Mutiny can be watched without regrets. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 10, 2022
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The Narrow Margin (1952) |
The Narrow Margin... is charged with very moral nitroglycerine but confers a grace that any sweaty driver of a heavy, slow-moving vehicle might envy. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 10, 2022
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Sudden Fear (1952) |
Outside of two very short but fairly unpleasing sequences, there is not a shot in this film that isn’t necessary to its dramatic progression. Not a shot, either, that isn’t fascinating and doesn’t make us think it is a masterpiece of filmmaking. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 10, 2022
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Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) |
Jack Webb is a filmmaker who is more skillful than gifted, more sincere than brilliant, more likeable than prestigious. Which is to say that his film is nice to see. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 10, 2022
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Rhapsody (1954) |
The dullness of Rhapsody leads one to think that Charles Vidor only gave his signature to the pleasant movie Gilda, with cameraman Rudy Mate probably being the real auteur. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 10, 2022
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Rebecca (1940) |
Rebecca has to be seen. Above all, it has to be seen a second time. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 09, 2022
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Queen Bee (1955) |
The acting is not absolutely bad, but weak, very weak, including Joan Crawford’s... Not only is the mise- en-scene clumsy but also, because of its solemn awkwardness, it curbs the timid impulses of the script [and] dulls the rare clever details. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 09, 2022
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The Long Wait (1954) |
Abysmal, of course, but, let’s admit it, not boring for a second. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Remains to Be Seen (1953) |
[A] charming film. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Man in the Dark (1953) |
It is amusing to note that the only effective scene from the point of view of subjectivity is the scenic railway, shot with an ordinary camera with the help of a transparency. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Las Vegas Story (1952) |
Everyone in Paris has already been talking about this car-helicopter chase. Is it necessary to make a special trip for this last quarter-hour, and for that quarter-hour, endure four more of equal dullness? I don’t think so. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Price of Fear (1956) |
The Price of Fear isn’t worth the price you have to pay for your seat, and if it makes you laugh, it’s without meaning to. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) |
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes is one of those films you go see while expecting the worst; it’s the strength of American cinema to hold out a couple of nice surprises of this sort fairly regularly. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) |
A bad American film goes over better than a bad French film. King Richard and the Crusaders confirms this. A childish scenario, simplistic dialogues. Who cares, since the rhythm does not falter, since the color is gay and the scenario correct? - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Marguerite of the Night (1955) |
It’s not worthwhile to elaborate on this aberrant enterprise, which conjures up the word “dismaying” and related words. - La Parisienne
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Lola Montes (1955) |
The most exciting film of the year. The CinemaScope, the color, the construction of the script, the dialogue here undergoes such a revolutionary treatment that Lola Montes's influence will be visible in many films during the years to come. - La Parisienne
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Il bidone (1955) |
Federico Fellini’s new film may be his best; the fact remains that one can unveil in this film every quality of I Vitelloni and La Strada without the lopsided aspect of the first one or the sentimentality of the second. - La Parisienne
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) |
Nicholas Ray is the best current American director. Nobody can doubt it after seeing Rebel without a Cause, a heart-rending film in which James Dean repeats, while expanding upon it, his surprising achievement in East of Eden. - La Parisienne
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Wicked Go to Hell (1956) |
Beyond the hopeless script and the poverty of the mise-en-scene, the real intentions pop up, contradictory and sordid, all conspiring to make this the most disagreeable movie possible. - La Parisienne
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Hondo (1953) |
This is one of the best westerns of the moment. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Hell and High Water (1954) |
Fuller’s direction is merely adequate; color has been used in an amusing way, but without taste. Richard Widmark is prodigiously bored; Victor Francen, with his feverish chin, parodies himself. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Animal Crackers (1930) |
One laughs with this movie as much as one did twenty years ago. The extraordinary sequences of the bridge party and Harpo’s arrival are as irresistible as they used to be. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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And God Created Woman (1956) |
A film that most certainly is not a masterpiece but that rises clearly -- from a moral point of view as well as from an intellectual or aesthetic point of view -- above the average. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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A Man Alone (1955) |
Alas! Never was [Ray Milland] less genuine, more unbearably a sinister show-off than in this film, the script of which is a bunch of clichés. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Girls in the Night (1953) |
[Girls in the Night] leaves us in an intermediary state between surprise and delight. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Forever Female (1953) |
There is nothing worse than a failed American comedy, which is the case here. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Five (1951) |
A film of great honesty, of evenhanded sincerity and genuine naivete, Five imposes upon us the notion of getting along with people, which is very pleasant in our times. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Executive Suite (1954) |
Extremely skillful construction of the film thoroughly informs us about the characters in a minimum of scenes, without cutting up the action in sketches. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Doctor in the House (1954) |
All lovers of English humor have to see this movie, which has lots of spirit. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Decameron Nights (1953) |
These Decameron Nights are in pretty Technicolor, and they are entertaining for those spectators who come to watch this movie without having terribly high expectations of their Boccaccio being scrupulously illustrated. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Naked Alibi (1954) |
Let us admit that Naked Alibi perfectly corresponds to the need for a drug that any lover of American films irresistibly experiences. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Naked Jungle (1954) |
This plague ruins the hero of the film, but it also causes love to blossom between a very charming couple. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The High and the Mighty (1954) |
It is perhaps inappropriate to come down too hard on this movie, which has, despite everything, the advantage of being rather well acted, and which is definitely well directed. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Cause for Alarm (1951) |
The solidity of the scenario is sacrificed to effect. But all those effects hit home, perfectly timed, and isn’t that what counts? - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Jet Pilot (1957) |
To be sure, the film's intention is stupid propaganda, but Sternberg constantly turns it aside so that tears come to our eyes in the face of such beauty. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Glenn Miller Story (1954) |
The Technicolor is of irreproachable quality and the acting -- bringing together James Stewart and June Allyson -- is excellent. - Arts (France)
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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Thunder on the Hill (1951) |
If Douglas Sirk doesn’t have the genius of Rossellini and Hitchcock, the sincerity and intelligence of his directing make him worthy of it. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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The Turning Point (1952) |
Holden, discovered in Stalag 17, is confirmed here as one of the three great American actors of tomorrow. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 06, 2022
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When You Read This Letter (1953) |
A courageous film? No. A film to see? No. Am I being unjust? No (everyone tells me). - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 05, 2022
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Crime Wave (1954) |
[Crime Wave] has the merit of showing us [an American couple] belying in one fell swoop the terrible, backbiting, imported legend according to which there is supposed to be, on the other side of the Atlantic. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 03, 2022
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Deadline U.S.A. (1952) |
[The screenplay and the characters] don’t lack for real greatness, but the merit of Richard Brooks lies more in his knowing that cinematography is the art of petty details that do not strike one, and in his proving it through constant invention. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted May 03, 2022
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A Life of Her Own (1950) |
[Cukor] makes, out of every five films, one masterpiece, three other very good ones, and the fifth still interesting. We must place this admirable film beside Holiday, Philadelphia Story, and Little Women. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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Lure of the Wilderness (1952) |
Lure of the Wilderness is, above all, a film to avoid. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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Return to Paradise (1953) |
A curious film that attaches itself to the viewer and is also baffling, one that we wish we could like more. - Cahiers du Cinéma
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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Plymouth Adventure (1952) |
With Clarence Brown, the viewer has to make the first move. The attention that one is willing to bring to it from the beginning is always well rewarded. - Arts (France)
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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Garden of Evil (1954) |
After River of No Return, Garden of Evil is the best CinemaScope film released this year. - Arts (France)
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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