O Quarto Verde

If there is a strange film, it is this one. François Truffaut directs himself. He is a husband who idolizes his dead wife and ends up building her a mausoleum in an abandoned chapel in a cemetery. He is a columnist in charge of the obituary column of a provincial newspaper. He will meet a woman who understands him, she also has a death in her life.

The film is both fascinating for its subject, and totally original, because this subject is not often the subject of a "mainstream" fiction; which is quite relative considering this very subject. And it was probably not easy to finance a film on such a subject. The basic materials are the writings of Henry James. The screenplay was written by François Truffaut himself and Jean Guault, a regular collaborator of François Truffaut.

The interpretation by François Truffaut himself of this character, accentuates its strangeness and originality: the jerky elocution of Truffaut, his inexpressive face permanently, gives depth to the character, and makes it all the more moving and unfathomable.

The work of the sets, interior and exterior, with a small provincial town at night, but also an impressive cemetery, which is overgrown with vegetation, almost abandoned, but which produces an astonishing climate.

The film manages to talk about the subject of the dead, while remaining in realism, or rather without tipping over into the fantastic, which could quickly appear, but it is not the case.

Green Room, The (1978)

** (out of 4)

Truffaut plays a journalist still grieving the death of his wife nearly ten years after her passing. Her passing helped his obsession of death, which ends up making him a friend in an equally strange woman (Nathalie Baye) who also has her own interesting thoughts on the subject. As his obsession grows deeper, the man decides to buy a chapel and turn it into a sanctuary for his wife and other dead friends. This is an extremely bizarre film from Truffaut and while I'm still new to his work, this here is certainly the least entertaining of his films that I've seen. I think the entire film is just one real big mess that never really makes sense of what it's trying to do. I couldn't help but feel a tad bit lost as the movie never really seems clear as to what it's trying to say about death as both characters are pulling in opposite directions. I found their relationship to be extremely forced and completely make belief as not for a single second did I feel either one could care for the other. Another minor issue was the performance by Baye, which I thought was rather weak. The problem with this is that Truffaut was pretty good and the two just don't work very well together and in the end it hurts the film because not only does their relationship feel weak but it doesn't help that the actor is so many better than the partner. I'd be lying if I said I hated this movie because I really didn't. There just wasn't anything here that kept me overly entertained and in the end I was just too bored by the characters and screenplay.

Francois Truffaut's wife died years ago, and he has since kept a shrine to her, a green room where he keeps her belongings, where he speaks to her. When he encounters Nathalie Baye, who seems to have a similar feeling about the dead, he can choose to be a man among the living, or build a chapel to the dead, to be completed with his own death.

Truffaut's adaptation of Henry James' "The Altar of the Dead" is a sere, underplayed movie about people who have given up on life in the aftermath of the First World War, and seek am excuse in the idealization of the dead. It's madness, but an attractively passive form of madness. Unfortunately, Truffaut, as great a director as he was, was not the actor to bring off this role.

I, too, have reached a stage in life when I know more dead people than living ones. I don't talk to them; they never shut up long enough to let me get in a word edgewise. But even these ghosts know that life is for the living.

Julien Davenne has suffered trauma, it still haunts him, he's perpetually a mourner, after losing his wife Julie, he still loves her oh so truly, leaves him trapped inside a tomb, can't turn the corner. Cecilia attempts to make a bond, there's connection, and slowly he does respond, after fire burns his tribute, to his perpetual love salute, she becomes someone, of which he is quite fond - but not for long.

It's not the most riveting period drama you've ever come across although, like The Story of Adele H, it shows how people with serious mental illness behaved when there was little or no support, or indeed appreciation for, in this case, PTSD. Nathalie Baye is gorgeous and elegant, and as such, shows just how much Julien Davenne has lost his marbles, but at least she gets to light his candle.

I was very impressed, when I watched this movie for the first time. I only knew Truffaut's most popular films (like Jules et Jim or Fahrenheit 451) by then. This film is so completely different than the ones mentioned above. I think Truffaut shows us his inner-self by playing the role of Julien Davenne, a journalist obsessed with the idea of building an altar for his dead. The audience gets a direct access to his feelings and thoughts about life and death. This film is a chance to understand Truffaut and his work better. He knew that the film would not be a box-office hit, but that was not important to Truffaut. He liked the short-stories by Henry James and just did what he wanted to. In my opinion Truffaut did a beautiful job by making this film. I think this film demands very much from its viewers. "The Green Room" provokes a self-reflection in the viewer. The viewer has to deal with his own attitude towards life and death. So this is not an easy film to watch. But if you want a film that differs from all the high-tech, action-loaded movies of the present that simultaneously gives you a very personal access to the man who made it, "The Green Room" is a good choice.