'I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in between; I am not interested in all those films that do not pulse.'

François Truffaut

After years working as a film critic at publications like Cahiers du Cinéma, along with peers such as Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer, François Truffaut became one of the most significant directors of the French New Wave of the 1950s and 1960s. This seminal movement, which revolutionised filmmaking with its preference both for a playful approach to narrative and for shooting on location, would go on to influence the ambitions and practice of many filmmakers of the 60s, 70s and beyond, while countless filmmakers, from Steven Spielberg and Bong Joon-ho to Greta Gerwig and Wes Anderson, continue to hold Truffaut’s work in high esteem.

The BFI is proud to present four key Truffaut films, newly available on Blu-Ray. Browse the collection here.