Chocolate gateaux, Truffaut and the first May showers

Fast facts first.

• Francoise Truffaut, born in 1932 (6 February), was one of the leading French directors in a genre called new wave cinema.
• He started out as a film critic and later began making his own films.
• Convinced by the idea that a film is primarily an impression of a director’s style (auteur theory), Truffuat left a distinct mark in world cinema.
• Orson Welles inspired him to make his first film “The 400 Blows”, heavily borrowed on his own life experiences, that was released to much critical acclaim.
• Besides “The 400 Blows” some of his other films include “Jules and Jim”, “Shoot the Piano Player”, “Bed and Board”, “Two English Girls”, “Day for Night” (Best Foreign Film Oscar, 1973), and “Small Change” (Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film).
• Truffaut died in 1984 (21 October).

My first tete-a-tete with Truffaut (alack, only through his films) happened as a happy coincidence. Those were the days when I used to be the master of my time. On such a hot May afternoon, while gallivanting Delhi’s streets, I found myself on a quiet tree-lined avenue, near India International Centre, looking askance at a sepia-tinted poster of a handsome man in a beret, posing in front of a camera.

But such was the arresting pose of the person that my oblique attention gave way to a deep probe. As it turned out, Alliance Francaise was screening a retrospective of this auteur and, like most Delhi events, entry was free. Now, the magic of the silver screen has never failed to seduce me. Hence, I happily made my way to the auditorium, and immediately got immersed in the son et lumiere of Traffaut’s cine world.

That May afternoon remains etched in my memory for a variety of reasons. Primarily because I discovered Truffaut’s cine magic and secondly because that evening I had a taste of my first chocolate gateaux, soaked in the annihilating lust of Mathilde’s relationship with Bernard (“Woman Next Door”). And as I was making my way out of Alliance, silently sending a prayer for an afternoon well spent, I was completely caught unawares by the first (read: sudden) showers of the season. Cinema, cakes and walking through laburnum-strewn streets on a rain-drenched evening … what more could I have asked for!