November 29th: CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS (François Truffaut, 1983)

When her boss is suspected of murder, a secretary becomes an amateur sleuth to clear his name.

One of the founders of the French New Wave, critic-turned-director François Truffaut helped usher in the movement with his debut feature The 400 Blows, and continued through the 1960s with other masterworks like Jules and Jim. After a comparatively inconsistent run in the 1970s, his 1980 film The Last Metro was seen as a return to form, winning 10 Cesar awards.

As he had done before multiple times, Truffaut adapted an American crime novel, this one a 1962 work by Charles Williams, The Long Saturday Night. Collaborating with him on the script were Suzanne Schiffman (a frequent writing partner of Truffaut's New Wave compatriot Jacques Rivette) and Jean Aurel. The action was altered from a small town in Alabama to a town in the Provence region of southeastern France.

The lead role was originally written for French cinema icon Jeanne Moreau, but Truffaut would wind up casting his current muse and partner Fanny Ardant instead. Opposite her stars the veteran Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Conformist, Amour). 

The film was shot by Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros (Days of Heaven), his ninth film with Truffaut. In keeping with the story's film noir elements, they used black & white film, with a distinct retro contrast level. In addition, some sets were painted in black & white to aid with the specific look.

Various nods to classic Hollywood noir films abound, but the director also pays homage to one of his greatest heroes and influences, Alfred Hitchcock, who was famously interviewed by Truffaut in a series of long meetings that were transcribed and published, becoming a key text for many scholars of the British filmmaker.

Confidentially Yours, or its translated French title Finally, Sunday!, was a moderate success, with Truffaut and Ardant both receiving Cesar nominations. It would turn out to be his final film, as during the summer of its release, Truffaut fell ill and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and was dead by the next year.

Running time is 110 minutes.