Film Review
Shortly after making his first commercial film,
Les Mistons, in 1958, François
Truffaut decided to make a short documentary film about the floods being experienced by
Paris at the time. This later evolved into an improvised film, part documentary,
part comic fiction, which was dedicated to Mack Sennett, the creator of the Keystone Kops.
Having finished the shooting, Truffaut had a change of heart and decided to abandon the
film, partly out of sympathy for those who were made homeless by the floods. He
allowed his friend Jean-Luc Godard to use his footage to complete the film.
Godard's main contribution was the snazzy editing and the addition of his own dialogue
and narration. The resultant film is an entertaining short film, overall baffling
and challenging, but simultaneously fresh and engaging. Somehow, it manages to capture
the essence of the French New Wave, with its radical construction and an almost anarchistic synthesis
of the mundane and the unashamedly erudite.
© James Travers 2001
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Next Jean-Luc Godard film:
Vivre sa vie (1962)
Film Synopsis
An attractive young woman leaves her home one morning to find that the streets
around her house on the outskirts of Paris are flooded after the early-spring
ice thaw. She borrows a canoe and manages to reach dry land, where
she is fortunate enough to hitch a lift from a handsome young man.
The woman is insistent that she must get to Paris before nightfall, and the
man kindly agrees to drive her there. The flood turns out to be far
worse than either of them had supposed. All the major roads into Paris
are completely waterlogged and the only option is to take a perilous detour
across the countryside. Both the man and his passenger make the most
of their enforced companionship. As she talks at length about love
and literature, he fills the hours boasting about his car. It's one
way to start a romance...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.