Friday, January 22, 2010
FIRST LOVE
Today's film was the second in the Antoine Doinel series by Truffaut
Antoine et Colette / Antoine and Colette (1962)
It is a short in an anthology of shorts called Love at Twenty. 30 minutes.
A lot gets packed into this time.
We learn Antoine's fate since he ran away from the reform camp in the first film. We see him, actually, four years later at work and in unrequited love.
We also learn a lot about Antoine's personality. Tightly wound, intense, driven to success and, somewhat clueless on the implementation of his plans.
Jean-Pierre Léaud continues in the role of Antoine and his enormous charisma carries the film which, at the surface level, is inconsequential. But as in 400 Blows, we end wanting to know, "what next?". The impact of the film, its composition and story line have a lot to do with this. It is very cinematic.
It is hard to know if Truffaut planned it this way. He made this film for fans who wanted to know what happened after Blows. Now we know. And want to know more.
Which we will do tomorrow with the third film.
It is impossible to separate these films from the whole which is more than the sum of its parts. So a 5 out of Netflix5 is required. If we saw it standing alone it might not be so highly rated. We hardly know this young man yet.
Labels: films
