André Delvaux is one of the most important post-New Wave European directors. His films - which include The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965); Un Soir, Un Train (1968); Rendezvous a Bray (1971); Belle (1973); and Woman in a Twilight Garden (1979) - have been characterized as “complex structures, like musical compositions, with elements of the real and the imagined, the past, present and future repeated and re-worked” (Clare Kitson, BFI).
Delvaux (born 1926 in Belgium), who has studied law, music and music composition, and taught film theory and direction (still his primary activity), works in both film and television. He has made a series of television documentaries about filmmakers - Fellini, Jean Rouch, Demy, and the Polish Cinema - and, now, his latest film, To Woody Allen, From Europe With Love, which has been described as “a valentine” to Woody Allen, “one director lionizing another, and an inside view of a trans-Atlantic affair....
“From location shooting for Stardust Memories to the film's central interview, a certain style and sensibility emerges. Comedy, Mel Brooks said, is just one defense against the world. Allen outlines the nervous edge of his role in that world. He discusses the comedian turned filmmaker, the technique and limitations of comedy, sex, relationships, the fear of death, New Orleans jazz. He breaks new ground in disucssing his increasing ambivalence toward an author/auteur's needs contrasted with a public's demand and expectation.” --Carlos Mendez, Filmex '81