There's no such thing as an anti-war film.
Francois TruffautRead
But the cinephile is … a neurotic! (That’s not a pejorative term.) The Bronte sisters were neurotic, and it’s because they were neurotic that they read all those books and became writers. The famous French advertising slogan that says, “When you love life, you go to the movies,” it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the appreciation of cinema stems from dissatisfaction with life, rather than love for it.
Francois Truffaut's quote posits that cinephiles, or movie lovers, often turn to films as an escape from their neuroses and discontent. He argues that a deep engagement with cinema reflects a desire to find meaning or satisfaction in life, rather than a simple love for life itself. By referencing the neurotic Bronte sisters, Truffaut highlights that a creative outlet, such as film, can be a response to personal struggles and existential dissatisfaction.
Themes
CinephileNeuroticMoviesSatisfactionLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of cinema in our lives, this quote illustrates how films can serve as an escape.
More from Francois Truffaut
All quotes →I love the way she projects two facets: a visible persona and a subterranean one. She keeps her thoughts to herself; she seems to suggest that her secret, inner life is at least as significant as the appearance she gives.
Francois TruffautRead
I want my audience to be constantly captivated, bewitched, so that it leaves the theatre dazed, stunned to be back on the pavement.
Francois TruffautRead
To be a film-maker, you are almost forced to be surrounded by contradictions... You must have talents of so many different kinds - talents that are contradictory.
Francois TruffautRead
The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure.
Francois TruffautRead
I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.
Francois TruffautRead
Similar quotes
Music speaks directly to the heart. This response, this echo within the heart, is proof that human hearts can transcend the barriers of time and space and nationality. Exchanges in the field of culture can play an important role in enabling people to overcome mistrust and prejudice and build peace.
Daisaku IkedaRead
The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.
Gertrude SteinRead
The last light, in the last window, went out. Only the unstoppable machine of the sea still tears away at the silence with the cyclical explosion of nocturnal waves, distant memories of sleepwalking storms and the shipwrecks of dream.
Alessandro BariccoRead
Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at 'hateful ragtime' no longer passes for musical culture.
Scott JoplinRead
We attempted perfection; we wanted an object to be without flaw, so we cut the papers with a razor, pasted them down meticulously, but it buckled and was ruined... that is why we decided to tear prewrinkled paper, so that in the finished work of art imperfection would be an integral part, as if at birth death were built in.
Hans ArpRead
My first plays were amazingly bad, but I had a teacher who thought I had promise, and he kept working with me. I finally went to a summer workshop before my senior year with people like Sam Shepard and Maria Irene Fornes who encouraged me to write from my subconscious, and suddenly all this material about culture clash came out.
David Henry HwangRead