Autobiographical fiction is commonplace in literature but this approach’s potential for cinema is largely unexplored, with François Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel cycle as one of its few exemplars. The famous critic-turned-filmmaker helped kick off the French New Wave movement with The 400 Blows, a sensitive and personal film about a young boy named Antoine Doinel as a delinquent without any guiding adults in his life. He went on to make four other films over twenty years, featuring his stand-in, Doinel, always played by the brilliant Jean-Pierre Léaud, as he navigates adulthood. As he matures, Doinel is relatable and clumsy in his attempts to woo suitors (Antoine and Colette) and hold down jobs (Stolen Kisses). Yet, this cycle of films goes even further, past simply being autobiographical, as the final two films (Bed and Board, Lovers on the Run) become deeply intertextual and surprisingly postmodern in how they blur the lines among the identities of Truffaut, Doinel, Léaud, and even other fictional characters played by Léaud in other films. Each film is fascinating in their own right, but as a whole they make for a singular cinematic experience.
Titles and Dates:
June 24: The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959, 100 min., 35mm)
July 8: Antoine and Colette, Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut, 1962/68, 122 min., 35mm)
July 22: Bed & Board (François Truffaut, 1970, 100 min., 35mm)
August 5: Love on the Run (François Truffaut, 1979, 94 min., 35mm)
Events in this Series
Bed & Board (35mm)
The Complete Antoine Doinel If Truffaut’s first Antoine Doinel films begin as somewhat nostalgic ventures into childhood and young adulthood, then Bed & Board represents the moment where the films stop being ventures into Truffaut’s past and actually begin to muddle in Truffaut’s present.
Stolen Kisses (35mm) + Antoine and Colette (35mm)
The Complete Antoine Doinel Stolen Kisses is a feature-length follow-up on Truffaut’s Doinel character. Doinel is now a young adult who is still struggling to find a lover or a viable future. Throughout Stolen Kisses, Doinel works a series of odd jobs, most memorably and humorously as a private detective, and makes embarrassingly relatable fumbles in every single one. He’s obsessive in his search for a woman who will receive his adoration and chases infatuation rather than love.
The 400 Blows (35mm)
Sight & Sound by Decade | The Sight & Sound Club | The Complete Antoine Doinel The film that heralded in the ground-breaking French New Wave movement, The 400 Blows is a deeply personal and poetic depiction of childhood.