The Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut

The 60 film reviews in this volume, now published in English for the first time, mark a delightful and significant addition to the great French filmmaker's canon. The astute commentary of Dixon, director of film studies at the University of Nebraska, places the Truffaut writings in both historical and biographical contexts. The collection is built around several themes, most prominently Truffaut's concern with the American B-movie and with favorite filmmakers like Renoir, Lang, Cukor and Hitchcock (whom he praises particularly effusively). Likewise, he is warm in his praise of Cukor's collaboration with Garson Kanin: ``They reward American cinema every year with a masterpiece.'' Although his films bespeak a warm and fuzzy liberal humanism, as a film critic Truffaut had a reputation as a devastating hatchet man. This volume includes a savage and funny pan of Giant and more guardedly negative assessments of John Huston, of whom Truffaut asks, ``Will he always be no more than an amateur?'' Dixon argues that what makes these early writings important is Truffaut's dual role as a great filmmaker and as one of the first critics to take American genre films seriously. But what makes the book enjoyable is Truffaut's often witty and provocative writing. (Feb.)