Quentin Tarantino is, above all, a film nerd. Sure, he’s made award-winning features himself, but even decades after he broke out in Hollywood, the filmmaker is still an opinionated film fan who isn’t afraid to share his hot takes. This is evident in a recent interview where he decided to target none other than iconic French filmmaker, François Truffaut.
In a clip from his Video Archives Podcast (via IndieWire), Quentin Tarantino is talking about the world of Claude Chabrol. And while trying to explain why he’s a fan of Chabrol, the filmmaker uses François Truffaut as an example of an “amateur” director.
“[Chabrol’s] thrillers are drastically better than the abysmal Truffaut-Hitchcock movies, which I think are just awful,” Tarantino said. “I’m not a Truffaut fan that much anyway. There are some exceptions, the main one being ‘The Story of Adele H.’ But for the most part, I feel about Truffaut like I feel about Ed Wood. I think he’s a very passionate, bumbling amateur.”
Obviously, if you’re a fan of French film, or just film in general, you’re probably familiar with the work of François Truffaut, who is often associated with the French New Wave era. His debut feature, “The 400 Blows,” launched him into the upper echelon of filmmakers, winning the Best Director award at Cannes and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He would again earn another Oscar nomination for “Stolen Kisses,” which was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film. Truffaut would go on to win that Academy Award category for his film, “Day for Night.”
Needless to say, there are plenty of people who would scoff at Tarantino’s comparison. Truffaut would go on to make more than 20 features in just over 20 years, which means that not all of his work is Academy Award-level, obviously. However, his impact on film can’t be overlooked. Alas, people are entitled to their own opinions and Tarantino is never going to be someone afraid to share his.