Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 (1966) is François Truffaut's dystopian drama from Ray Bradbury's novel, and you can watch online on iFILM. In its future, firemen don't put out fires — they start them, torching every book they find, because reading is a crime. Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) burns without a second thought, until he starts wondering what exactly he's destroying.

A neighbour named Clarisse keeps asking Montag odd questions, like whether he has ever actually been happy. At home, his wife drifts through her days numbed by pills and wall-sized TV screens. On the job, more and more people choose to burn alongside their hidden libraries. Julie Christie plays both women — the sedated wife and the curious Clarisse — and the gap between them is the whole point.

This was Truffaut's only English-language film, scored by Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock's regular composer. Its closing image — exiles in the woods who each memorize a single book to keep it alive — stays one of the quietest, most haunting endings in any film about censorship. If you like thoughtful vintage sci-fi, stream Fahrenheit 451 (1966) online on iFILM.