François Truffaut was a French director born in Paris, a former critic turned filmmaker who became one of the founding voices of the French New Wave. The 400 Blows, his autobiographical debut about a troubled Parisian adolescent, introduced Truffaut's alter ego Antoine Doinel, a character he would follow across four further films including Stolen Kisses. Jules and Jim, a fluid, decades-spanning love triangle, and Day for Night, an affectionate film-about-filmmaking that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, showcased his gift for warmth and narrative playfulness rarely matched among his New Wave peers. Less austere than Godard and more attuned to emotional storytelling, Truffaut became one of the most widely loved directors to emerge from the movement, on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more