As with many of his films, this beautifully mounted tragic-romantic-thriller about a struggling theater in Nazi-occupied France is replete with Truffaut’s autobiographical memories, which shapes it into something more intimate and personal than its broad parameters might otherwise allow. The theater becomes a symbol of the power of art and the nature of resistance, both of which Truffaut romanticizes almost to a fault, which is probably why the film was the most commercially successful of Truffaut’s career and why it went home with 10 César Awards. (DVD)