Skip to main content

Truffaut

I've been doing some internet trawling for resources to help with teaching some Truffaut movies next term. I've taught Jules et Jim (novel and film) before, but this year I'm just going to focus on films. We are going to watch Les 400 Coups, Jules et Jim, La Nuit Américaine and Le Dernier Métro. I've found some useful sites which I have listed on frenchteacher.net. I'll copy them below if there are other teachers interested. Noémie has produced some lovely stuff on Les 400 Coups which you can find on TES Connect.

I read a comment on a site to the effect that it is easy to overrate Truffaut's movies because of one's sympathy with Truffaut as a man. I have had this feeling too, but I wonder if there's anything wrong with that. He is an auteur so it should be no surprise if you get wrapped up in his life as well as his cinema. In any case, the two more interwoven than usual in his case.

If any reader is not familiar with his films you would do well to start with Les 400 Coups.

Video interviews with director Serge Toubiana
Analysis of Les 400 Coups by Anne Gillain
Detailed dossier on Les 400 Coups from ABC-lefrance.com
Questions to discuss on Les 400 Coups
IMDB entry and reviews on Les 400 Coups
Pedagogical guide for teachers on Le Dernier Métro
Alternative version of the above
IMDB entry and reviews of Le Dernier Métro
Good blog post on La Nuit Américaine
IMDB entry and reviews of La Nuit Américaine

Comments

  1. Pierre23 July 2010 at 19:15

    Les 400 Coups is certainly one of my favorite films of all time. I must admit though that I'm not overly familiar with all of Truffaut's films. However this film is truly remarkable and rightly deserves all the praise it gets.

    Pierre

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).
Post a Comment
Read more

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

Two DfE documents were published today. The first was the response to the consultation about the proposed new GCSE (originally due in October 2021) and the second is the subject content document which, ultimately, is of most interest to MFL teachers in England. Here is the link  to the document.  We are talking about an exam to be done from 2026 (current Y7s). There is always a tendency for sceptical teachers to think that consultations are a bit of a sham and that the DfE will just go ahead and do what they want when it comes to exam reform. In this case, the responses to the original proposals were mixed, and most certainly hostile as far as exam boards and professional associations representing the MFL community, universities, head teachers and awarding bodies are concerned. What has emerged does reveal some significant changes which take account of a number of criticisms levelled at the proposals. As I read it, the most important changes relate to vocabulary and the issue of topics
5 comments
Read more

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,
1 comment
Read more