François Truffaut Book order

Small Change , shot in the French Provinces, is a story about children. Truffaut has captured the essence of each age group – the verbally precocious three-year-old who pushes the family cat out the window only to follow it nine stories to the ground, the teenage boy yet to experience his first kiss, but hopelessly infatuated with his best friend's mother, the uncooperative eight-year-old daughter of the local policeman who, when left alone as punishment, uses her father's bullhorn to complain to the neighbors she is starving, the brothers who, having insufficient pocket money to buy a stolen compass, cut a younger classmate's hair and borrow his barber money.Small Change contains precise and moving descriptions of the various stages of a secure childhood, of the fun and freedom one experiences as a child, but throughout the film, Truffaut makes a stunning comparison with another child who lives in the same town, who attends the same school. He compares the life of Julian, who is hated and abused by his mother, whose mere existence is despised because he is a child. In Small Change , Truffaut makes an eloquent and traumatic appeal for the rights of children.

Probably the best loved of all Truffaut's films, Jules et Jim was an instant success with both the critics and the public when it opened in Paris in 1962. Telling of the friendship between Jules and Jim, and the love affairs they both have with Catherine, the story is set in Paris.

The French director discusses each of his films from The 400 Blows to The Last Metro, and recounts his childhood, first memories of the cinema, and major influences

Based on the famous series of dialogues between Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock from the 1960s, the book moves chronologically through Hitchcock's films to discuss his career, techniques, and effects he achieved. It changed the way Hitchcock was perceived, as a popular director of suspense films - such as Psycho and The Birds - and revealed to moviegoers and critics, the depth of Hitchcock's perception and his mastery of the art form. As a result of the changed perceptions about Hitchcock, his masterpiece, Vertigo, hit the No 1 slot in Sight & Sound's recent poll of film-makers and critics, displacing Citizen Kane as the Best Film of all time.