Discharged dishonorably from the Army, Antoine Doinel (Jean Pierre Leaud) randomly tries a series of jobs unsuccessfully while half heartedly attempting to reconnect with his old sweetheart (Claude Jade). The movie loving 12 year old misfit of Francois Truffaut's
THE 400 BLOWS is still trying to find his place in the world but Truffaut has left the poignant bitterness of the 1959 film and his tone here is more romantic. The messiness of love has always been a major component in Truffaut's cinematic landscape whether the dark obsessions of
JULES ET JIM and
STORY OF ADELE H or the more whimsical diversions of
DAY FOR NIGHT or this film and its follow up,
BED AND BOARD. As a film maker, he is sorely missed. The film is both amusing and poignant even as Antoine's idealized fantasies of love are given both credence and doubt by several minor subplots like the stranger stalking Jade or the young man who falls apart when he discovers his male ex-lover is now married with children. With Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Marie France Pisier and Harry Max.
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