Green Room, The (1978) ** (out of 4) Truffaut plays a journalist still grieving the death of his wife nearly ten years after her passing. Her passing helped his obsession of death, which ends up making him a friend in an equally strange woman (Nathalie Baye) who also has her own interesting thoughts on the subject. As his obsession grows deeper, the man decides to buy a chapel and turn it into a sanctuary for his wife and other dead friends. This is an extremely bizarre film from Truffaut and while I'm still new to his work, this here is certainly the least entertaining of his films that I've seen. I think the entire film is just one real big mess that never really makes sense of what it's trying to do. I couldn't help but feel a tad bit lost as the movie never really seems clear as to what it's trying to say about death as both characters are pulling in opposite directions. I found their relationship to be extremely forced and completely make belief as not for a single second did I feel either one could care for the other. Another minor issue was the performance by Baye, which I thought was rather weak. The problem with this is that Truffaut was pretty good and the two just don't work very well together and in the end it hurts the film because not only does their relationship feel weak but it doesn't help that the actor is so many better than the partner. I'd be lying if I said I hated this movie because I really didn't. There just wasn't anything here that kept me overly entertained and in the end I was just too bored by the characters and screenplay.

The Green Room is one of the most fascinating films; immensely deep. Sharp, (relatively) short,compact, mournful,doleful and intensely poetical, acutely moving ,and grim.François Truffaut put this film in the most inner core of his creative work; he keenly understood the extravagant and bizarre, uncanny side and nature of his subject--like the breath of the tomb.Several supporting roles are striking (e.g.,the white friar that receives Davenne;the gazette's chief; i.e., Antoine Vitez and Jean Dasté),but the movie has, on the performances' plan, two poles:the fresh ,delicious Nathalie Baye, and François Truffaut, whose physiognomy is worth a treatise.Where,and when,the exterior adventure stops,the inner,interior one begins--ever-so shocking.So,The Green Room is really like a "giallo" without the exterior/ extrinsic /phony excitement. On the other hand, Davenne's drama means nothing, because he is insane, mad; but Cecilia Mandel's way and suffering and light are meaningful, the true core of the movie.Like Two English Girls and the Continent,The Green Room is a period movie, very calligraphic, and it delights in a certain taste for the colors and their relations; and then, the indelible freedom. The music is wonderful (it is Maurice Jaubert's).Truffaut himself practiced such a cult as is seen in his film;in his many movies, some of the men he admired are honored.The morbid, weird atmosphere is maintained with science,tact and instinct.I consider him (François Truffaut) one of the ten most important directors (with Alfred Hitchcock,Renoir, Welles, Federico Fellini ,Michelangelo Antonioni ,Visconti,Andrei Tarkovsky ,Nikita Mikhalkov and Luis Buñuel ).One cannot cheat himself;Truffaut's work is as compact as theirs.François Truffaut's movies are amazingly realistic--in a subtler, metaphysical sense--as being truly united closely to an inner realm that he made visible in his best films--hence, their visionary look.In The Green Room one can admire again François Truffaut's tact and precision, intelligence and depth.As a man,as a reader,as a director, he was like no other;he managed to transfer/ transform his culture and his highly cultivated creativity into autonomous, coherent and labyrinthine films.The Green Room is one of those.he was a craftsman as well--an often inspired one;his effort was strikingly fruitful and original, independent and exciting and wholly humane.Néstor Almendros's cinematography is enchanting.It is a film elliptic, mysterious, without transitions, chilly, deliberately disturbing.

I was very impressed, when I watched this movie for the first time. I only knew Truffaut's most popular films (like Jules et Jim or Fahrenheit 451) by then. This film is so completely different than the ones mentioned above. I think Truffaut shows us his inner-self by playing the role of Julien Davenne, a journalist obsessed with the idea of building an altar for his dead. The audience gets a direct access to his feelings and thoughts about life and death. This film is a chance to understand Truffaut and his work better. He knew that the film would not be a box-office hit, but that was not important to Truffaut. He liked the short-stories by Henry James and just did what he wanted to. In my opinion Truffaut did a beautiful job by making this film. I think this film demands very much from its viewers. "The Green Room" provokes a self-reflection in the viewer. The viewer has to deal with his own attitude towards life and death. So this is not an easy film to watch. But if you want a film that differs from all the high-tech, action-loaded movies of the present that simultaneously gives you a very personal access to the man who made it, "The Green Room" is a good choice.

I totally disagree with Maltin. Truffaut's The Green Room was destined not to be a crowd pleaser: unlike his most famous films celebrating life (Jules and Jim being the most obvious example) the film is serious in tone and deals with death, Truffaut himself playing the death-obsessed newspaperman.The Green Room is nonetheless a very impressive film; the questions of the forms of love, life versus death, possession and the remembrance of those who have passed away are treated both intellectually (but not in an 'artsy' or artificial way) and emotionally (but not in a melodramatic way despite an interwoven love story).The film is surprisingly short and the ending comes even a bit abruptly, so contrary to possible expectations it is not long and dull. The Green Room reminded me of The Magnificent Ambersons and (John Huston's) The Dead, which are also films to be recommended.