The Green Room (French: La Chambre verte, pronounced [la ʃɑ̃bʁ vɛʁt]) is a 1978 French historical drama film directed by François Truffaut, based on the 1895 short story "The Altar of the Dead" by Henry James, in which a man becomes obsessed with the dead people in his life and builds a memorial to them.
Truffaut spent several years working on the film's script and felt a special connection to the theme of honouring and remembering the dead.
Davenne has reserved a room for the worship of his wife, Julie, on the upper floor of the house he shares with his elderly housekeeper, Mrs. Rambaud, and Georges, a deaf-mute boy.
To keep the chapel, Davenne calls a young woman, Cécilia, secretary of the auction house that has regained a ring that had belonged to Julie.
Alexandre also recommended works by Anton Chekov and Leo Tolstoy with similar themes, while Truffaut did his own research on James's life and visited his home in Boston.
In an interview with L'Humanité-Dimanche magazine, Truffaut asked: "Why not have the same range of feelings for the dead as for the living, the same aggressive or affectionate relationship?"
[9] Truffaut recommended that Gruault read James's 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle and 1896 short story "The Way It Came", which were also incorporated into the film.
In fact, he stated that he chose to adapt Henry James’ 1928 themes because he wanted to link them directly with the memory of the First World War.
Truffaut, also busy writing the script for Alain Resnais's Mon oncle d'Amérique,[12] put the entire project on hold and eventually shot Small Change and The Man Who Loved Women.
He continued to research the themes of The Green Room, reread Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past and Japanese literature such as the works of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
This decision was not simply taken because Truffaut embodied the character, but because Davenne’s obsession, what he does throughout the whole film, what defines him, that is, keeping the memory of the dead alive, refusing to forget them, linked in a way to the activity of the director.
[16] Specifically, he felt a closeness to the character of Davenne, due to his own valuations of remembrance of the dead as helping in the "struggle against the transience of life".
[21] Among the portraits included in the shrine are Henry James, Oscar Wilde, an old man who played a small role in Truffaut's Two English Girls, actor Oskar Werner in a World War I uniform,[25] Jacques Audiberti, Jean Cocteau, Maurice Jaubert, Raymond Queneau, Jeanne Moreau and her sister Michelle Moreau, Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, Aimée Alexandre, Oscar Lewenstein, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Apollinaire and Sergei Prokofiev, many of whom were idolised figures of Truffaut's .
The Green Room appears to reminisce on childhood, whilst focusing more on the final stages of life, as Truffaut expresses his views of death and remembrance of the dead.
This theme for a film had "preoccupied him for several years and had been accentuated by the deaths of numerous friends and colleagues",[28] such as those who previously worked alongside him on Shoot the Piano Player.
"[29] Yet, also thematic throughout The Green Room is a familiar "estrangement from human contact and romantic obsession", which has been prominent in "most of the films that Truffaut has made over a period of twenty years.
"[30] Truffaut chose pre-recorded music from composer Maurice Jaubert's 1936 "Concert Flamand", whose work he had already used four times,[31] and played it on set in order to create a rhythm[32] and establish a religious, ritualistic atmosphere for the cast and crew.
"[32] However, an infrequent use of music throughout the final film sees a consistent quietness take place, which is regarded to have masked "an exploration of human isolation in an inhuman society and of the strength and limitations of moral and aesthetic purity.
"[33] Truffaut completed the editing of The Green Room in March 1978 and showed it to his trusted friends and co-workers, who immediately praised the film and called it one of his best.
'[35] Joel Magny called Davenne the ultimate 'truffaldian' hero, 'unable to live the present moment in the fullness of his being, where he is...in a perpetual time-lag with reality'.
[36] The French magazine Télérama called Davenne 'l'homme qui aimait les flammes' ('the man who loves the flames').
'[34][38] The Green Room was released on April 5, 1978 and was a financial failure, selling slightly more than 30,000 tickets[39] (it has sold 161,293 admissions total as of 2015).
[1] Truffaut knew that a film about death would be difficult to market or attract an audience, but felt strongly that 'this kind of theme can touch a deep chord in many people.
'[34][6] He hoped that the film would connect with the audience,[40] and stated that he wanted people to watch it with their jaws dropped, moving from one astonishing moment to the next.
[34] A few days before the film's premiere, Truffaut completely changed his approach, putting more emphasis on his own track record as a filmmaker and the presence of rising star, Nathalie Baye.
He publicly stated that he would not act again for at least ten years, and admitted to Paris Match that he regretted not casting Charles Denner in the lead role.
[41][42] Truffaut later blamed United Artists for not promoting the film properly, which led to his breaking from the US company for the first time in over ten years.
[41] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review and criticized Truffaut's performance, saying that: 'Truffaut does not make it easy for us to respond to Davenne'.
[46] Truffaut himself eventually reflected on the reception of The Green Room as a case where he was able to 'get out of trouble', rather than simply assert 'I succeeded', in relation to the commercial failure but general critical success of the film.