Watch: Vintage 50-Minute François Truffaut Documentary 'La Leçon de Cinema'

Francois Truffaut lived a life of peaks and valleys, of epochal successes and resounding failures. He is one of the principal architects of France’s nouvelle vague movement, and is generally regarded as one of the 20th century’s foremost cinematic humanists. But how much do we really know Francois Truffaut: the mad, empathetic genius behind such landmark pictures as “The 400 Blows” and “Jules & Jim”? Here to help us answer the question is “Le Lecon de Cinema,” a recently dug-up doc, via Eyes On, from 1981 that takes a good, hard look at the man who once asked “is cinema more important than life?” READ MORE: Francois Truffaut's 15 Greatest Films The video examines Truffaut’s life and career in astonishing totality, highlighting selected clips from many of his best and most-loved films, including under-appreciated gems like his crackerjack movie-within-a-movie, “Day for Night,” and his tender and insightful portrait of married ennui, “Bed and Board.” The layer of Truffaut’s...