Others may have got in first, but for many it was François Truffaut's Les Quatre Cent Coups (1959) that heralded French New Wave - spiky, energetic and truculent, rich in the jump-cuts and gritty location shoots that made the Vague so Nouvelle. With Jules Et Jim (1961), however, Truffaut's romantic side came to the fore. Gloriously shot by Raoul Coutard and starring an irresistible Jeanne Moreau, it enchanted audiences worldwide. La Peau Douce (1964) by contrast, wasn't much liked, but it's a tough, sensuous, psychological study that makes superb use of the tragically short-lived Françoise Dorléac. After this, Truffaut's penultimate movie Le Dernier Métro (1980) comes as a letdown. Stiff, stagey and studio-bound, it's woefully close to the outmoded cinéma de papa that the young Truffaut so mercilessly derided. Extras are lavish and well-chosen, including Truffaut's directorial debut short Les Mistons (1957).
