The “abysmal” director Quentin Tarantino called the second coming of Ed Wood: “A bumbling amateur”

Quentin Tarantino has sharply criticised François Truffaut’s Hitchcock-inspired thrillers, calling them “awful” and describing Truffaut as a “passionate, bumbling auteur” comparable to Ed Wood. The remarks matter because they dismiss the work of a major French director whose films, including *The 400 Blows*, are widely regarded as significant.

Tarantino said Claude Chabrol’s thrillers were “drastically better” than Truffaut’s, while noting that he liked *The Story of Adele H*. Truffaut’s later films in the genre included *The Soft Skin*, *The Bride Wore Black* and *Mississippi Mermaid*. The article argues that comparing him with Ed Wood, whose directing is often regarded as inept, is an unfair dismissal of a filmmaker with at least one acknowledged masterpiece.