Themes: Haunted By the Past, Unrequited Love, Crisis of Conscience
Main Cast: Nathalie Baye, Jean Dasté, François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Moulin, Jane Lobre
Release Year: 1978
Country: FR
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The Green Room (La Chambre Verte) is perhaps the least well-known of Francois Truffaut's 1970s films. Truffaut himself stars as Julien Davenne, a WW I-era journalist obsessed with death. As his friends drop like flies on the battlefield, Davenne's obsessions overwhelm him. At war's end, he devotes all his energies to building a special shrine to his fallen comrades. No matter how elaborate this shrine becomes, it will always pale in comparison to its counterpart in Davenne's own home, constructed in the memory of his late wife. He briefly comes out of his morbid shell when he falls in love with Cecilia Mandel (Nathalie Baye), but she proves to be a disappointment to him, driving him farther and farther into necrophilia, not to mention an all-consuming death wish. The Green Room was adapted from a short story by Henry James. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Patrick Maleon - Georges; Marcel Berbert - Dr. Jardine; Henri Bienvenu - Gustave, the usher; Josiane Couëdel - Nurse at cemetery; Guy D'Ablon - Wax Dummy Maker; Jean-Pierre Ducos - Priest; Monique Dury - Monique, Editorial Secretary; Jean-Claude Gasche - Policeman; Marie Jaoul - Yvonne Mazet; Christian Lentretien - Speaker at Cemetery; Annie Miller - Geneviève Mazet; Anna Paniez - Little Girl at Piano; Laurence Ragon - Julie Davenne; Serge Rousseau - Paul Massigny; Alphonse Simon - One-legged man; Roland Thénot - Disabled man at cemetery; Antoine Vitez - Bishop's secretary; Martine Barraqué-Curie - Nurse; Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko - Disabled man at saleroom; Thi Loan Nguyen - Apprentice Artisan
Credit
Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko - Art Director, Monique Dury - Costume Designer, Christian Gasc - Costume Designer, François Truffaut - Director, Martine Barraqué-Curie - Editor, Néstor Almendros - Cinematographer, François Truffaut - Producer, Michel Laurent - Sound/Sound Designer, Jean Gruault - Screenwriter, François Truffaut - Screenwriter, Maurice Jaubert - Featured Music, Henry James - Short Story Author
The Green Room (French: La chambre verte) is a 1978French film directed by François Truffaut and based on the Henry James short story "The Altar of the Dead", in which a man becomes obsessed with the many dead people in his life and builds a memorial to honor them. This film is also based on other short story by Henry James, "The Beast of the Jungle". It would be the last film Truffaut would act in.
