Fahrenheit 451
Short description
Set in a future society where reading is outlawed, Fahrenheit 451 follows Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to burn books and the homes that hide them. Montag has carried out his duties without complaint for years, but his meeting with a young woman named Clarisse unsettles his certainties. His wife Linda, meanwhile, fills her days with television and pills. As Montag begins to question what he does and starts reading in secret, he turns against the system he has served.
François Truffaut directed the film, his sixth of fourteen, arriving between The Soft Skin and Stolen Kisses. He wrote the screenplay with Jean-Louis Richard, and Lewis M. Allen produced. This was Truffaut's first film in colour and his only English-language production, made in the United Kingdom on a budget of two million dollars. Oskar Werner plays Montag and Julie Christie takes the dual roles of Clarisse and Linda; Cyril Cusack appears as Captain Beatty, with Anton Diffring, Jeremy Spenser and Bee Duffell in supporting parts.
The film has a critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from thirty-seven reviews and a TMDB rating of 7.1 out of 10 from more than a thousand votes, so professional and audience assessments sit close together. Its worldwide box office roughly matched its production budget, and the cast and crew each number around forty.
What's left behind the scenes
- Terence Stamp was originally supposed to play the role of Guy Montag. Lewis M. Allen said that Stamp turned down the role because he believed Julie Christie would overshadow him.
- Among the burnt books, one can find works by Ray Bradbury – “The Martian Chronicles” and, appropriately, “Fahrenheit 451”.
- All the captions in the film are read, not written. This fully corresponds to the idea of a new world where there is no place for printed text.
- François Truffaut's first color film.
- When Montag's house is burned, a close-up shows a copy of Alexander Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter" burning.
- Before Cybill Shepherd was cast as the fire captain, Laurence Olivier, Sterling Hayden, and Michael Redgrave were considered for the role.
- At the end of the film, Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" is among the "living books".
- During the filming, Truffaut had a falling out with actor Oskar Werner, who had previously appeared in his film 'Jules and Jim' (1962). They did not speak to each other for a long time, and Truffaut clearly did not forgive the offense, placing a photograph of Werner in a crypt for the deceased in the drama 'The Green Room' (1978) – six years before the actor’s actual death.
- Truffaut said he dreamed of filming 'Fahrenheit 451' because he was always attracted to the idea of making actors read books directly on camera.
- Filming period: January 13 – April 15, 1966.
- Paul Newman, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Aznavour, and Peter O'Toole were also considered for the role of Montag. It is said that Montgomery Clift also declined the role.
- The novel "Fahrenheit 451" was first published in Playboy magazine.
- According to producer Lewis M. Allen, Truffaut had a poor command of English in general, and everyone spoke French on set – even the English actors Julie Christie and Nicholas Rowe. Allen himself knew French to the extent of his school curriculum, while editor Tom Noble didn't know it at all.
- Oskar Werner specifically had his hair cut short, and in the finale his character appears with a short haircut, thereby disrupting the plot’s continuity. This was Werner’s way of getting revenge on Truffaut.
- Truffaut became so enthusiastic about the idea of filming the novel that he began writing the screenplay without having fully mastered English. He later admitted that the English dialogue seemed very awkward to him, and he preferred the version dubbed in French.
- Truffaut burned his most beloved books in the film. The producer ironically noted that Truffaut himself may have been the one throwing them into the fire.
- According to the producer, he came up with the idea to give both female roles to Julie Christie. The idea came to him at the very last moment.
- Firefighters are also burning the magazine “Cahiers du Cinéma,” where François Truffaut worked. The cover features a frame from Godard’s film “Breathless” (1960), for which Truffaut wrote the screenplay.
- Truffaut's first and only English-language film.
- The burning pages in one scene are from James Hadley Chase's "No Orchids for Miss Blandish", Nabokov's "Lolita", and Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" (in English).
- The epigraph of the novel states that the ignition temperature of paper is “451 degrees Fahrenheit.” In reality, paper burns at 450 degrees Celsius.
- According to the producer, lawyers suggested burning only books by authors who had long since passed away, so as not to offend the living. Truffaut ignored the request, believing that every author whose book was burned should be flattered that it made it into the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
