New Wave pioneer Truffaut's ambitious adaptation of Ray Bradbury's dystopian fantasy, in which posits literature itself as the principal hero and victim of its melancholic adventures, remains the only English-language film of his distinguished career. But it wasn't uncharted territory for him alone: Universal Pictures also gambled on the project as its first European production. Not everyone felt in the end that it was a risk worth taking, least of all Truffaut himself, who described it as his "saddest and most difficult" professional experience. Neither the reviews nor the box office would have cheered him up, but Truffaut's moving, sparely romantic interpretation -- stripping nearly all the sci-fi from Bradbury's novel -- has aged better than a more concept-y approach might have done, and it remains a fascinating anomaly within both the genre and the director's oeuvre.