THE 400 BLOWS / ANTOINE AND COLETTE (short) / STOLEN KISSES

ABOUT THE FILMS:

THE 400 BLOWS, 1959, Janus, 99 min, France, Dir: François Truffaut 

François Truffaut’s first feature is also his most personal. Told from the point of view of Truffaut’s cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. The film marked Truffaut’s passage from leading critic to trailblazing auteur of the French New Wave.

FORMAT: DCP

Antoine and Colette, 1962, Janus, 32 min, France, Dir: François Truffaut 

After indulging in much delinquency in his youth, seventeen-year-old Antoine Doinel, having been provided opportunity to get out of that delinquent life, is now an upstanding member of society working for Philips Records, which allows him to indulge in his love of music. At the Youth Concerts, he has noticed the same young woman at several performances. She is Colette and the two begin to date. Colette treats Antoine like a buddy, while Antoine has fallen in love with her. His pursuit of getting Colette to be his exclusive girlfriend is helped on the surface by the fact that Colette’s parents like him and encourage their dating. He uses grand romantic gestures to try and prove his love. Will Colette ultimately fall for Antoine’s romanticism?

FORMAT: DCP

Stolen Kisses, 1968, Janus, 91 min, France, Dir: François Truffaut 

Jean-Pierre Léaud returns in the delightful STOLEN KISSES, the third installment in the Antoine Doinel series. It is now 1968, and the mischievous and perpetually love-struck Doinel has been dishonorably discharged from the army and released onto the streets of Paris, where he stumbles into the unlikely profession of private detective and embarks on a series of misadventures. Whimsical, nostalgic, and irrepressibly romantic, STOLEN KISSES is Truffaut’s timeless ode to the passion and impetuosity of youth.

FORMAT: DCP