When hearing of Truffaut's death from a brain tumour Godard is suppose to have remarked 'That's what comes of reading so many bad books'! A pretty harsh judgement even by Godard's standards but one senses what he meant. During a career in which he made 28 films Truffaut certainly cast his net pretty wide for material. This final film is taken from 'The Long Saturday Night' by Charles Williams, a writer unfamiliar to me.
As is well documented Truffaut acknowledged two masters, Renoir and Hitchcock.This is an unashamed tribute to the latter and is the second collaboration with his final 'muse', the splendid Fanny Ardant, having made 'The Woman Next Door' the previous year. It also surprisingly represents his first collaboration with the marvellous Jean-Loius Trintignant who had apparently written to Truffaut asking why he never used him. The film is graced once more with a fabulous score by Georges Delerue and the monochromatic cinematography of Nestor Almendros is intended to replicate Hollywood 'noir'. Technically excellent, there is never a wasted shot in a Truffaut film, this is both intriguing and entertaining. My enjoyment of this film is tinged with sadness however and not just because it is Truffaut's swansong. I am not the first and shall certainly not be the last to observe that with this delightful but rather slight film he has gone out not with a bang but with a whimper.
Review of Confidentially Yours
