Screenplay of 1960 French film with analysis. The film shocked and delighted critics and audiences with its sudden shifts of tone and mood, its willful play with grenre stereotypes, and its hilarious in-jokes. Along with Godard's Breathless, the two films heralded the arrival of the so-called New Wave of low-budget, shooting location and cinema as the personal statement of an author. Truffaut was one of the directors who paved the way for a postmodern aesthetic.