So long Christine Doinel

I remember very clearly the moment when I first saw Claude Jade. I was 15 and sitting in study hall reading James Monaco's The New Wave instead of whatever assignment I was ignoring that day. The book, which would prove so important to me, was a trade paperback with the pages already yellowing and it's black and white photos becoming less and less clear each time I looked at them. I had found the book in a used Evansville, Indiana bookstore and it fuelled my new found appetite for French film and especially Jean-Luc Godard. The photos of Claude of course were in the Truffaut section and while they conveyed little of what made her so special they stuck with me.

Years later I was at College in Lexington Kentucky in a particular cleaning house phase of my life when I rented a number of Francois Truffauts films from a local video store. Over the period of a few nights I felt transformed by this man and his evoctive memory films. Why I waited so long to discover Truffaut I don't know but I found them at the perfect time.

All of the films I watched that week had a profound affect on me but it was the third Antoine Doinel adventure, Baisers Voles (Stolen Kisses), that left me feeling the warmest. Suddenly those blurry black and white photos I had stored in my memory for so long became alive and I could finally see that her hair was as red as I had imagined with her skin as fair as I had hoped.

Claude Jade was an accomplished screen and stage actress in France. She won awards, wrote a book and even made a film with Hitchcock but it's her work with Truffaut in three films as Christine Doinel that I hold so close.

Upon hearing the news that cancer had taken this lovely woman away a couple of weeks ago made me feel of course very sad but also reminded me of what a wonderful thing it was to be 20. That's how old she was when she made Stolen Kisses in 1968 and that's how old I was when I first saw it around 1993. I think of her as an old friend that I might run into again, a secret crush that I kep't to myself inhabiting a world where things like aging and cancer don't exist.

I'm reminded of what Tony Bennett said upon hearing that Frank Sinatra died, "I don't have to believe that" and that's how I feel about Claude Jade. I have no doubt we'll meet again at 20 and if only for a moment I'll be able to tell her that I've missed her.

Reading The Movies (A Meme)

I’ve been tagged by the always terrific Dancing Image in a meme going around focusing on the film books that have proved inspirational in the way I think and write about films. It’s a terrific idea for a meme and I am more than happy to participate. I’ve selected a dozen or so of my favorite books on cinema that have proved invaluable references to me throughout the years, and I would recommend any of them to any fellow film lover. While these choices definitely show me as a cineaste more interested in film history rather than theory or criticism, I could have easily selected any number of critical works from a Kael, Rosenbaum, Ebert or Sarris that I have left off here…I just went with my gut though and these were the books that jumped out at me as I was constructing the list.

In alphabetical order by title:

Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision: Brad Stevens penetrating look at the films and career of Ferrara is one of the great film studies I have ever read. Carefully balancing history and criticism with one of the sharpest pens around, Stevens finds the depth and complexity in Ferrara’s work that so many others miss.

Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters: Derek Hill’s wonderfully perceptive book on a movement most haven’t even noticed yet will continue to resonate for years to come, especially when the work of folks like Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson have had time to really sink into film history’s collective psyche.

Double Lives, Second Chances: Annette Insdorf’s tremendous book on Kieslowski’s life and career is my favorite on the much-missed Polish director. As with her studies on Truffaut, Insdorf brings an equal amount of passion and intelligence to her look at Kieslowski and her thoughts will make even the most seasoned watchers notice something new in his films after reading.

Flesh and Blood Compendium: Flesh and Flood was a daring British film magazine that stretched throughout the nineties. This massive best-of collection features many of their best interviews, reviews and studies. Just like the magazine, it is a truly ambitious and quite astonishing look at the outer edges of cinema history.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner: Paul Sammon’s extremely exhaustive and entertaining book on the making of Blade Runner remains perhaps the finest single look at the making of a film ever written.

Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy: The ever popular “Films of” type book has been done time and time again but never has it been so meticulously researched or as beautifully presented as Mark Vieira does here.

Immoral Tales: I have written of the profound effect this Tohill and Tombs book has had on me, and it has lost none of its importance in the near fifteen years since it first hit American shores.

Mario Bava: All The Colors of The Dark: Tim Lucas’ monumental book is not only one of the great biographies ever written on a filmmaker, but it also stands as one of the great film histories ever published. Tim’s ambitious work will make you rethink not only Mario Bava's place among the great filmmakers of the 2oth Century, but also the history of film itself.

The Exorcist: BFI Modern Classics: I love these little BFI film books and Mark Kermode’s look at William Friedkin’s much-misunderstood classic is a great read.

The New Wave: James Monaco’s book had a huge impact on me when I discovered it in high school, and I still think it is the best thing ever written on the films of perhaps cinema’s most influential movement. I like it so much that I am choosing it over another favorite, Godard on Godard.

The Other Hollywood: Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osbourne's extremely entertaining and informative work on the part of film history so many like to ignore is important stuff. The first half of the book covering the earliest days of the adult film industry up through the early eighties when video take over is always eye opening and at times jaw dropping.

Truffaut by Truffaut: I have an entire book shelf dedicated to books on Truffaut and this gorgeous coffee table collection is my favorite. Told through his own words and including hundreds of rare documents and photos, this is my favorite book on my favorite director.

I would love to see the lists of the following...so consider yourself tagged, but don't feel any pressure to join in if the timing isn't right:

J.D. at Radiator Heaven.

Kate at Love Train for The Tenebrous Empire.

IbeTolis at Film for the Soul.

Amanda at Made for TV Mayhem.

Brandon Colvin at Out 1.