CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Antoine et Colette

Director

François Truffaut

Year

1962

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon C Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Probably as an experimental attempt to extend the experiences of Antoine Doinel, the main character from the classic The Four Hundred Blows (1959), co-writer/director François Truffaut, who’s also, incidentally, the real-life person Doinel is based upon, participated in the film Love at Twenty with the segment “Antoine et Colette”. As I haven’t had the chance to watch the whole film, but only Truffaut’s segment, I decided to review it by itself, given its significance. I realize that the whole film has its own importance, and promise to review it as a whole whenever I get the chance.

That said, I proceed to review the short second episode of what has now become the Antoine Doinel saga. In it, Truffaut established young Doinel as an idealist dreamer and womanizer, a tireless pursuer of his goals, and also a terribly voluble, insatiable, and unstable young man. Estranged from his parents, now working at Philips Records to sustain himself, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud, reprising his role) falls for Colette (Marie-France Pisier), a pretty girl he meets at a music lecture. Unfortunately, Colette is mysterious and elusive, and willingly or unwillingly leads Antoine on, until he’s sort of obsessed with the fellow music lover. After a series of attempts to conquer her heart, the charming Antoine gets her parents’ affection, but hardly her own.

Jean-Pierre Léaud evolved impressively, as did Antoine Doinel in Truffaut’s mind. The sweeter tone of the script is perfectly absorbed by Léaud, who still underplays his role, with his trademark sadness in his eyes, but now also a sense of optimism and wit that suit the part to a tee.

The tone of the film demanded a continuation. It managed to create a transition from the shattering (if genius) plot of The Four Hundred Blows (1959) into a sweeter, if also in ways saddening, look at the life of a young and confused man in a continuous struggle to understand himself and the world he lives in. The continuation, thank goodness, came six years later in the form of Stolen Kisses (1968), which now showed in full flower the Antoine many of us came to love in this gem of a short film.

Strikingly directed by Truffaut, this short is well-worth a look (obligatory if you ask me), as it constitutes a bridge between two of the most brilliant films of this genius French auteur.

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