Antoine and Colette
(François Truffaut, France 1962, 32 min., 35mm, French with English subtitles)
This short film was part of a larger collaborative anthology with other French directors, called Love at Twenty. In order to make a film fitting the theme of adolescent love, Truffaut revisited the character he had developed in The 400 Blows. We see Doinel at age twenty, as he attempts to develop sophisticated tastes in music as he attends lectures about classical music and clumsily tries to woo a girl he encounters there.
Stolen Kisses
(Baisers volés, François Truffaut, France 1968, 91 min., 35mm, French with English subtitles)
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. A deceptively simple film that feels nearly random, Stolen Kisses is actually deftly constructed, and in Paul Schraeder’s words is “so good, so impeccably crafted, that it catches us by surprise”.
Upcoming Events in this Series
Film Screenings | 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.