8. Francois Truffaut's Vivement Demanche!
Francois Truffaut is one of the most influential directors who ever lived and, along with Jean-Luc Godard, is responsible for starting the French New Wave of filmmaking. Truffaut is also a great dramatist who was able to use the unconventional nature of the French New Wave to tell tales of personal resonance with an air of dramatic tension and passion. His final film borrows heavily from his previous efforts but uses that basis to build a sense of realism that is unlike any of his other work. This makes Vivement Demanche! seem like a departure for Truffaut in some ways even though it is unmistakably directed by him. This is why he was such an excellent filmmaker. He was able to craft new and exciting worlds in everything that he made while always expanding his boundaries as a director. Vivement Demanche! bears thematic resemblance to The 400 Blows, Truffaut's debut, in the way the main character is given an open ended story arc while Truffaut never lets the audience know if he is the hero or the villain. He also brings the stark realness on display in Fahrenheit 451 to Vivement Demanche! which gives the drama of the film a very serious tone that really serves to heighten the importance of the story. While his style was very surreal in nature, Vivement Demanche! has an honest quality to it that Truffaut had rarely touched on so well before.