The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

250 Neil LaBute
most passionate moment comes between the husband and wife, surprisingly.
There’s a kiss early on, even though they go back and they have that
fantastic moment where she begins unrolling that crazy wool painting that
hides the bedroom, and the nurse sees that and shuffles the child into the
next room. But that’s not nearly as strong, I mean physically, as that one kiss
that they have, and there’s nothing like that on the other side that we see,
and I think that’s really a shrewd move on his part. It’s another thing that
makes it really quite modern, and de-romanticizes the tale and really gets
down to the messy mechanics of love.
This is shot very differently from all his previous films.
LaBute: Well, it also gives more of a nod to his fellow New Wave directors.
There’s more of a sense of Godard there and more of a sense of Rohmer,
although he hadn’t done work by that point, aside from his short films.
The 400 Blows probably owes more of a debt to neorealists than it does to
the New Wave. But Chabrol’s Le beau serge couldn’t seem further from Breathless
to me. It’s kind of an old-throwback well-made piece, but I love that.
But, yeah, I think there is a different shooting style. One of my favorite
moments is that freeze-frame when Lachenay [Desailly] is walking out of
the plane. He starts to walk past Nicole [Françoise Dorléac], and they start
to look at each other. And they stand and look at each other, and Truffaut
literally freezes the frame but cuts to the other side. There’s a straight cut
to her, which is frozen as well, and then it starts again, like that moment
when time stands still when you’re with this person who takes your breath
away. And it’s just really a gorgeous moment you can almost miss, but it’s
really incisive in terms of technique and emotion. It just all works together
right then.
There’s a great quote from Truffaut in which he says, “The critics say I
changed my style, but not at all. I had merely changed my subject.” So,
from your perspective as a director then, how does subject inform style?
LaBute: You kind of erase the board every time, and you let the piece
speak to you. I think he was one who could do that, although you could
look at almost all of his work, more so than many people, and feel it fit
within his hand.