In the last T-Boy article, The Film Soundtracks in Our Lives, Part II – Traveling Boy, we covered the source of many of our favorite musical soundtracks in film. The titles ranged from Alfred Hitchcock & Bernard Herrmann's Psycho to Richard Lester & The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. In Part II, we discuss the relationship between film director Francoise Truffaut and composer Maurice Jaubert in Le Chambre Verte,L’Histoire d’Adèle, L’Homme qui aimait les femmes and Argent de poche; Jaubert’s first piano prize; banned films during the Nazi occupation of France, saved by Henri Langlois et la Cinémathèque française; Maurice Ravel as Jaubert’s best man at his wedding; and La Nouvelle Vague and the politique des auteurs.

French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-73) is hard to pigeonhole. He operated outside established channels (eventually running his own studio) yet he employed movie stars. An inspiration to the New Wavers who liberated French cinema, he remained a consciously classical technician. Abroad he’s best remembered for a trilogy of gangster dramas — Le doulos (1962), Le deuxième souffle (1966) and Le samouraï (1967).

The 22nd annual COLCOA French Film Festival, the largest festival of its kind dedicated to French cinema and television series, recently wrapped up after eight days of screenings at the Directors Guild of America where a smorgasbord of 86 films, television and digital series, and VR programs were offered.