Zeus

The Green Room (1978)

• Director
  • François Truffaut
• Writers
  • François Truffaut(screenplay)
  • Jean Gruault(screenplay)
  • Henry James(novellas: "The Altar of the Dead", "The Beast in the Jungle" and "The Friends of the Friends")
• Stars
  • François Truffaut
  • Nathalie Baye
  • Jean Dasté

  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.