(Domicile conjugal, François Truffaut, France 1970, 97 min., 35mm, French with English subtitles)
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. It has now been over a decade since we first saw Doinel in The 400 Blows and it feels as if he has stumbled into adulthood with all its responsibilities far too soon: he is now a father, a husband, and a full-time employee and is floundering in all three roles. Doinel’s ill-informed decision-making may be more infuriating than relatable by now, but is made all the more strange when one considers the infidelity in this film’s plot (wherein Doinel cheats on Christine as performed by Claude Jade) as representative of Truffaut’s real-life infidelity in his marriage, wherein he cheated on Madeleine Morgenstern with Claude Jade. With Bed & Board, Truffaut and Doinel’s identities had become permanently intertwined.