In need to watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films in order to prepare for his famous interview, François Truffaut travelled regularly to the Cinémathèque Royale. Like many other French filmmakers, he knew that a weekly train ride to Brussels, where Jacques Ledoux would be happy to screen the films (in original version, on top!), would be much easier and less stressful than trying to do the same in Paris.
Later, as thank you gift he gave the Cinémathèque a copy of a small film nobody had heard about: on the can, just a title, Los 4 golpes. We know very little about the film that appears to have been made by Truffaut and a group of friends in Mar del Plata on the occasion of the film festival. The year must have been 1962, when the festival awarded Truffaut as best director for Jules et Jim. Unknown to all filmographies and biographies, it is just a 3-minute divertissement, a thriller (Truffaut plays ‘the assassin’) complete with (very) complete cast and credits. Shot on 16mm, in a style between amateur and film-noir, in black and white and silent (although the complete cast and credits mention “music by J.S. Bach” – a gag?, perhaps to be screend with discs?), Los 4 golpes has all the freshness of an afternoon amusement: a camera, a group of friends, and Truffaut playing assassin and director!

Nicola Mazzanti