Though very different filmmakers in outlook and aesthetics Francois Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Melville were each Inspired by certain American contract directors who had left their personal stamp on films, despite the rigid constraints of the studio system, Along with fellow directors Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, et al, Truffaut was an early innovator in the “nouvelle vague” style, and one of its most commercially successful practitioners. Melville, a generation older than Truffaut and his cohorts, was known for a pragmatic, rigorous, and austere approach to his art. Melville’s gangster tales in particular proved a major influence on crime films from the 1960s onwards.