| Fahrenheit 451 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | François Truffaut |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Fahrenheit 451 byRay Bradbury |
| Produced by | Lewis M. Allen |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Nicolas Roeg |
| Edited by | Thom Noble |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release dates |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom[1] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million[2] |
| Box office | |
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 Britishdystopiandrama film directed byFrançois Truffaut and starringJulie Christie,Oskar Werner, andCyril Cusack.[1] Based on the 1953novel of the same name byRay Bradbury, the film takes place in a controlled society in an oppressive future, in which the government sends out firemen todestroy all literature to prevent revolution and thinking.
The film received mixed reviews upon its release, but has since garnered critical reevaluation over the years. This was Truffaut's first colour film[5] and his only non French-language film. At the27th Venice International Film Festival,Fahrenheit 451 was nominated for theGolden Lion.[6]
In the future, a totalitarian government will employ a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature. They can search anyone, anywhere, at any time, and burn any books they find. One of the firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbors, Clarisse, a young school teacher who may be on the government's radar due to her unorthodox views. The two discuss his job, and she asks whether he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them, starting with Charles Dickens'sDavid Copperfield. This leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member ofThe Family, an interactive television program that refers to its viewers as "cousins".
At the house of an illegal book collector, the fire captain, Beatty, talks with Montag at length about how books make people unhappy and make them want to think that they are better than others, which is considered anti-social. The book collector, an old woman who was seen with Clarisse a few times during Montag's rides to and from work, refuses to leave her house, opting instead toburn herself and the house so that she can die with her books.
Returning home that day, Montag tries to tell Linda and her friends about the woman who martyred herself in the name of books and confronts them about knowing anything about what's going on in the world, calling themzombies and telling them that they're justkilling time instead of living life. Disturbed over Montag's behavior, Linda's friends try to leave, but Montag stops them by forcing them to sit and listen to him read a passage from the novelDavid Copperfield. Montag reads a highly abridged excerpt from chapter 48, beginning with the words "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose" which describe Dora's death. During the reading, one of Linda's friends breaks down crying, aware of the feelings she repressed over the years, while Linda's other friends leave in disgust over Montag's alleged cruelty and thesick content of the novel.
That night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisse's house is raided, but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, thanks to her uncle. Montag breaks into Beatty's office, looking for information about the missing Clarisse, and is caught but not punished.
Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her break back into her house to destroy papers that would bring the Firemen to others like her. She tells him of the "book people", a hidden sect of people who flout the law, each of whom has memorised a book to keep it alive. Later, Montag tells Beatty that he is resigning but is persuaded to go on one more call, which turns out to be Montag's own house.
Linda leaves the house, telling Montag that she couldn't live with his book obsession and leaves him to be punished by the Firemen. Angrily, he destroys the bedroom and television before setting fire to the books. Beatty lectures him about the books and pulls a last book from Montag's coat, for which Montag kills him with the flamethrower. He escapes and finds the book people, including Clarisse, where he views his "capture" on television, staged to keep the masses entertained and because the government doesn't want it to be known that he is alive. Montag selects a book to memorise,Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, and becomes one of the book people.
Truffaut kept a detailed diary during the production and later published in both French and English (inCahiers du Cinéma in English). In this diary, he calledFahrenheit 451 his "saddest and most difficult" film-making experience, mainly because of intense conflicts between Werner and himself.[7][8]
The film wasUniversal Pictures' first European production.Julie Christie was originally cast as just Linda Montag, not both Linda and Clarisse. The part of Clarisse was offered toJean Seberg andJane Fonda. After much thought, Truffaut decided that the characters should not have a villain/hero relationship but rather be two sides of the same coin and cast Christie in both roles, although the idea came from the producer,Lewis M. Allen.[9]
In an interview from 1998,Charles Aznavour said that he was Truffaut's first choice to play the role given to Werner; Aznavour said thatJean-Paul Belmondo was the director's second choice, but the producers refused on the grounds that both of them were not familiar enough for the English-speaking audience.[10]Paul Newman,Peter O'Toole andMontgomery Clift were also considered for the role of Montag;Terence Stamp was cast but dropped out when he feared being overshadowed by Christie's dual roles in the film.[11]Laurence Olivier,Michael Redgrave andSterling Hayden were considered for the role of the Captain, before Cyril Cusack was cast.[citation needed]
The film was shot atPinewood Studios in England, with themonorail exterior scene taken at the FrenchSAFEGE test track inChâteauneuf-sur-Loire nearOrléans, France (since dismantled). The film featured theAlton housing estate inRoehampton, south London, and alsoEdgcumbe Park inCrowthorne, Berkshire. The final scene with the "Book People" reciting their chosen books was filmed at Black Park near Pinewood, in a rare and unexpected snowstorm that occurred on Julie Christie's birthday, 14 April 1966.[12]
According to an introduction by Ray Bradbury to a CD of a rerecording of the film score by William Stromberg conducting theMoscow Symphony Orchestra, Bradbury had suggestedBernard Herrmann to Truffaut. Bradbury had visited the set ofTorn Curtain, meetingAlfred Hitchcock and Herrmann. When Truffaut contacted Bradbury for a conference about his book, Bradbury recommended Herrmann, as Bradbury knew that Truffaut had writtena detailed book about Hitchcock.[16] When Herrmann asked Truffaut why he was chosen over modern composers, such as the director's friendsPierre Boulez orKarlheinz Stockhausen, the director replied that "They'll give me music of the twentieth century but you'll give me music of the twenty first!"[17] Herrmann used a score of onlystring instruments,harp,xylophone,vibraphone,marimba andglockenspiel. As withTorn Curtain, Herrmann refused the studio's request to do a title song.
The film had a mixed critical reception upon release.Time magazine called the film a "weirdly gay little picture that assails with both horror and humor all forms of tyranny over the mind of man"; it "strongly supports the widely held suspicion thatJulie Christie cannot actually act. Though she plays two women of diametrically divergent dispositions, they seem in her portrayal to differ only in their hairdos." They also noted that the film's "somewhat remote theme challenged [Truffaut's] technical competence more than his heart; the finished film displays the artisan more than the artist".[5]
Bosley Crowther called the film a "pretentious and pedantic production" based on "an idea that called for slashing satire of a sort beyond [Truffaut's] grasp, and with language he couldn't fashion into lively and witty dialogue. The consequence is a dull picture—dully fashioned and dully played—which is rendered all the more sullen by the dazzling color in which it is photographed."[18]Leslie Halliwell described it as "1984 stuff, a little lacking on plot and rather tentatively directed, but with charming moments".[19]
It has gained significant critical acclaim over the years.[20] On the review aggregator web siteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 82% positive rating among top film critics based on 38 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "Fahrenheit 451 is an intriguing film that suffuses Truffaut's trademark wit and black humor with the intelligence and morality of Ray Bradbury's novel."[21]Martin Scorsese has called the film an "underrated picture", which had influenced his own films.[22]
Author Ray Bradbury said in later interviews that, despite its flaws, he was pleased with the film. He was particularly fond of the film's climax, where the Book People walk through a snowy countryside, reciting the poetry and prose they've memorised, set to Bernard Herrmann's melodious score. He found it especially poignant and moving.[citation needed] However, alluding to a possible remake, Bradbury said in a 2009 interview, "The mistake they made with the first one was to cast Julie Christie as both the revolutionary and the bored wife."[23]
| Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | British Academy Film Awards | Best British Actress | Julie Christie(also forDoctor Zhivago) | Nominated |
| Hugo Awards[24] | Best Dramatic Presentation | François Truffaut,Jean-Louis Richard,Helen Scott,Ray Bradbury | Nominated | |
| 1966 | Venice Film Festival[6] | Golden Lion | François Truffaut | Nominated |
Despite the totalitarian overtones in the plot, the film was broadcast uncensored onTelevisión Española in the early 1970s at a time when Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco was still in power.[citation needed]
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
