Francois Truffaut: Stolen Portraits

This exemplary documentary about an icon of international cinema boldly makes the statement that filmmaker Francois Truffaut reinvented himself on film. Through clips from his challenging body of work and exhaustive interviews, this fascinating remembrance of various "Truffauts" past proves its point about a director using his movies as selective autobiography.

Rather than adopting a purely chronological approach, Truffaut's biographers, Serge Toubiana and Michel Pascal, trace the director's life like a detective story with evidence gleaned from an array of French film industry celebrities plus family and friends. Unsurprisingly, they say Truffaut's personality...