The classic science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury was a curious choice for one of the leading directors of the French New Wave, François Truffaut. But from the opening credits onward (spoken, not written on screen), Truffaut takes Bradbury's fascinating premise and makes it his own. The futuristic society depicted in Fahrenheit 451 is a culture without books. Firemen still race around in red trucks and wear helmets, but their job is to start fires: they ferret out forbidden stashes of books, douse them with petrol and make public bonfires. Oskar Werner, the star of... Truffaut's Jules and Jim, plays a fireman named Montag, whose exposure to David Copperfield wakens an instinct towards reading and individual thought. (That's why books are banned--they give people too many ideas.) In an intriguing casting flourish, Julie Christie plays two roles: Montag's bored, drugged-up wife and the woman who helps kindle the spark of rebellion. The great Bernard Herrmann wrote the hard-driving music; Nicolas Roeg provided the cinematography. Fahrenheit 451 received a cool critical reception and has never quite been accepted by Truffaut fans or sci-fi buffs. Its deliberately listless manner has always been a problem, although that is part of its point; the lack of reading has made people dry and empty. If the movie is a bit stiff (Truffaut did not speak English well and never tried another project in English), it nevertheless is full of intriguing touches, and the ending is lyrical and haunting. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com [show more]
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Ray Bradbury's best-selling science fiction masterpiece about a future without books takes on a chillingly realistic dimension in this film classic directed by one of the most important screen innovators of all time, the late Francois Truffaut. Julie Christie stars in the challenging dual role of Oskar Werner's pleasure-seeking conformist wife, Linda, and his rebellious, book-collecting mistress, Clarisse. Montage (Oskar Werner), a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Suddenly he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal safety and intellectual freedom. Traffaut's first English language production is an eerie fable where mankind becomes the ultimate evil. Actors Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring, Jeremy Spenser & Alex Scott Director Francois Truffaut Certificate Not Rated Year 1966 Screen Widescreen 1.85:1 Languages English - Dolby Digital Mono Subtitles French Closed Captions Yes Duration 1 hour and 42 minutes (approx)
François Truffaut co-writes and directs this classic drama adapted from Ray Bradbury's novel. In the not-too-distant future, forbidden volumes of literature are burned regularly by the 'firemen'. Montag (Oskar Werner) is the man in charge of the burnings, but after meeting a revolutionary book-owner, schoolteacher Clarisse (Julie Christie), he begins to have doubts - both about his vocation and his dead marriage to pleasure-seeking Linda (also Christie). Curious about the draw of literature, Montag keeps forbidden volumes of books for himself, and soon embarks on a secret affair with Linda. The cast also includes Anton Diffring and Cyril Cusack.
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