Love On The Run (1979)

3/5

Truffaut's Love On The Run is the final piece in the Antoine Doinel series. And how thankful I am for that! The Doinel movies were always hit or miss with me, occasionally funny, sometimes provocative, usually amateurish, but never boring. Like The Man Who Loved Women, the protagonist is a womanizer who writes a book about his experiences with women. This story begins with a divorce. As he ends his marriage to Christine (Jade), Antoine (Léaud) bumps into his old flame Colette (Pisier). While reminiscing on a train about their past together, they are reminded of the harsh truth behind why they never worked out as a couple. His current girlfriend Sabine (Dorothée) dumps him, and he bumps into his mother's old lover while wandering the streets in despair. The movie continues on in this way, essentially reviewing the life of Antoine Doinel through flashbacks that are nothing more than scenes from Truffaut's old Doinel films. It was like a clip show at the end of a TV series, and it probably means more to the creator than to the viewer. Very nostalgic without any new content. Watch it to end the saga, but don't expect to see anything too inspiring.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078771/

Day for Night (1973)

4.9/5

Day for Night is one of three or so Truffaut movies that were independently identified and recommended to me. And correctly so. This is by far his best movie, and one of the best movies I've seen about making movies. This movie is the complete opposite of almost all of his earlier movies, but the funny thing is that it draws from Fellini and Altman more than from Truffaut himself. It doesn't really feel like his personal style of movie, and I am extremely thankful for that. The plot follows a director (Truffaut) on the set of his new movie, Meet Pamela, starring Julie Baker (Bisset), Alexandre (Aumont), and Alphonse (Leaud). The movie they are making is a tragedy, and we fear that the movie we are seeing may suffer a similar fate. We see a fragile actress who had a nervous breakdown on her previous film, a dependent actor immediately and obsessively in love with a freewheeling spirit, and a secretive actor who makes nightly visits to the airport for reasons nobody knows. There are moments where dedication and sacrifice are needed, where creative thinking and improvisation are essential. But despite the problems on set, there are moments of happiness and fluidity. And it is for those moments that people dedicate their lives to making movies.

The filmmaking in this movie shows some New Wave flourishes, but it is subdued in favor of brevity and efficiency in plot and style. The colors are bright without being oversaturated, the camera movements are meaningful without lingering, and the editing is brisk without being curt. In this movie, Truffaut fixes almost all of my complaints from all of his previous movies. But not quite. He still overuses zooms, still writes dialogue that sounds like it's written, and still uses bizarrely jarring cuts. But those annoyances are few and far between in this one. Day for Night is a tremendous film, and one that I can see watching time and time again. It is made by a true lover of film for true lovers of film.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070460/

Two English Girls (1971)

1/5

Two English Girls is a terrible movie, just like most of Truffaut's movies. I truly wish I had never burned the 15 movies of his that I had access to without first watching one or two. The plot follows Claude (Leaud) and two English girls (Markham, Tendeter) with whom he falls in love. Their love is instant and without explanation; it is less love and more melodrama and angst. I don't know what century this movie takes place in, but the movie plods along as if from a much slower era. The dialogue is stilted. It sounds better written than coming from the mouths of French and English actors who over-articulate as if they're learning new languages. An obtrusive and unnecessary narrator describes people's internal emotions instead of having them act it out, which also makes for an overly talky movie. The cinematography and editing are both poor. The colors range from far too dark to supersaturated; the film lingers on unrelated and unimportant shots like a stairwell or countryside landscapes. And there are a slew of unnecessary plot points that could have been excluded to make this movie shorter. (Or better yet, maybe Truffaut would have decided to exclude the whole thing and I wouldn't have had to sit through this movie at all! In fact, I wish that had happened for all of Truffaut's terrible movies.)

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066989/

Bed and Board (1970)

4/5

François Truffaut's Bed and Board is a playful and touching exploration of the life of a young married couple, Antoine (Leaud) and Christine (Jade), and their continual learning and maturing process. It examines the joys of a new child, the trials of adulterous desires, and the aches of separation. It is a simple yet well-made film that is filled with vivacity and infused with love for its inhabitants.

The editing is efficient, almost too efficient, never letting us take a breather from the whirlwind that is this couple's new life. The acting is capable, but the script often feels a bit written or staged. And some audiovisual quirks and idiosyncrasies stand out as bizarre or strange to people unfamiliar with Truffaut. This is in part due to Truffaut's history with New Wave, although here it is more refined and less experimental than in his earlier works. Truffaut does not always make good movies--and he has in fact made some terrible movies--but his Antoine Doinel ones are fantastic. And trust me when I say that this is one that I fully enjoyed from beginning to end and highly recommend.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065651/

Stolen Kisses (1968)

4/5

Despite the hatred I spewed after seeing Fahrenheit 451 and The Soft Skin, Truffaut's Stolen Kisses is actually a really entertaining film. What makes those crappy movies different from this one is the mood and the purpose. Instead of taking on serious subject matter, he has fun in Stolen Kisses. It's very reminiscent of Godard's Breathless in that you can see the director enjoying everything he's doing. I thought the pacing and the development of story and characters were exquisite. Loose ends were tied up (or at least explained) more so than I expected out of a Truffaut movie, which made it an extremely pleasant experience overall. I really liked the ending, and thought it was a great foreshadowing of the future Doinel series, where love is not so much a transitory fling but a long-lasting emotion. Hopefully Truffaut will carry that philosophy over into his future Doinel movies.

There are some startling cuts and amateurish cinematography, but overall they don't mar the film too much. The joy is infectious and totally blinds the viewer from these flaws. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fun romp through young love and all its errors and successes.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0062695/