365 Days. 365 Films.

This is one of the most famous and influential French films of all time from one of the most inspiring directors, Truffaut. The story follows a young adolescent whose rebellious attitude gets him into a lot of trouble both at school and at home. It’s a beautiful story about misunderstanding and emotional trauma, told with all the sincerity and anguish that Truffaut reflects in his stunning use of innovative cinematography.

When it comes to Truffaut there is nothing to criticise, especially with this film. He really did revolutionise cinema with his camera angles and movement to tell the story in ways other than what was being used previously. Just like an artistic photographer, Truffaut positions his audience as the observers to inspire sympathy in his characters. There is no distanciation as you would expect of his format, but instead he treats the audience as observers with the power to act on the story. One scene in particular which sums up my opinions of this is when Antoine, the boy, is being interviewed by a psychiatrist; Truffaut acknowledges the camera itself as the psychiatrist and therefore places the audience in a position of first hand observation.

It’s just a stunning piece of cinema and a stunning piece of art that, again, film studies students would have a lot of fun analysing, but I’ll leave it down to you to do that… Watch it!