Domicile Conjugal (aka Bed And Board) (1970)

Now married, Antoine Doinel (Jean Pierre Leaud) hasn't really matured and finds himself floundering in his marriage and unable to hold down a job. Directed by Francois Truffaut, this is the fourth entry in his Antoine Doinel films which began in 1959 with THE 400 BLOWS and ended in LOVE ON THE RUN. I honestly don't know why I have a great affection for this film since it's quite superficial and while it shares the name of the young boy (and played by the same actor) in his masterful THE 400 BLOWS, it seems somehow inconceivable that one could grow into the other. That aside, this film has no plot to speak of but is a series of incidents as the young Doinel finds himself being absorbed into the bourgeoisie that he once despised but I found it extremely winning. The lovely Claude Jade as Doinel's wife takes over the movie here. She's the character I really cared about and you begin to wonder if she doesn't deserve better than Leaud's Doinel. By the time of 1979's LOVE ON THE RUN, they're divorced. I saw the film several times during its original release and I'm as captivated by it now as I was then but I've long ago given up trying to analyze its appeal to me despite its obvious flaws. With Daniel Ceccaldi, Claire Duhamel, Hiroko Berghauer, Daniel Boulanger, Barbara Laage and Silvana Blasi.