Antoine and Colette
Encyclopedia
Antoine and Colette is the second film — a short
— in François Truffaut
's series about Antoine Doinel
, the character he follows from boyhood to adulthood through five films. The film was made for the 1962
anthology collection, Love at Twenty
, which featured shorts from the renowned directors Shintarô Ishihara
, Marcel Ophüls
, Renzo Rossellini
and Andrzej Wajda
, as well as Truffaut.
Antoine Doinel — and Jean-Pierre Léaud
, the actor who played him throughout all five films — had made his screen debut in 1959 with Truffaut's first film, The 400 Blows
. Truffaut's tender, semi-autobiographical film about the young Antoine and his gradual descent into petty crime introduced the world to the French New Wave
, a short-lived but highly influential outpouring of work from young French filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard
, Claude Chabrol
, and Éric Rohmer
.
.
One day, while attending a Berlioz Music Programme with René, he spots Colette, a secondary school student, and falls in love for the first time.
Colette is his own age, but unlike Antoine has a warm, supportive family with whom she still lives. Antoine forms a strong friendship with Colette and, eventually, also her parents who begin to treat him as if he were a part of their family.
Colette's feelings for Antoine are at first ambiguous and, harboring some hope that she might grow to return them, he leaves his apartment at the Place Clichy and moves into an apartment across the road from her family's. Although she continues to treat him kindly, it slowly becomes apparent that she is not interested in him romantically. He sulks about this and at first refuses to see her, but he is lured back by a dinner invitation. It is clear that her family still consider him a surrogate son and are possibly hoping for something romantic to happen between the two teenagers.
All of these hopes are dashed, however, when the pretty Colette is met at the front door by an older man. Her parents and Antoine look helplessly on as she disappears off with her date. They are all left to watch television.
Doinel's adventures follow with Stolen Kisses
, Bed and Board
and Love on the Run
.
in 1962 when he was approached by film producer
Pierre Roustang for his omnibus film project Love At Twenty
. Truffaut was influential in helping to select Shintarô Ishihara
, Marcel Ophüls
, Renzo Rossellini
and Andrzej Wajda
as the other directors who would eventually participate in the project. In his book Truffaut On Truffaut, Truffaut later said, "For my part, the French episode gave me the occasion to realize a project I hadn't dared to launch on my own, a short sequel to my first film, The 400 Blows
, in which we would meet up with the young Antoine Doinel three years later having his first sentimental adventure, one that would illustrate the moral: you risk losing everything by wanting too much."
Antoine and Colette is a largely autobiographical work, based on seventeen-year-old Truffaut's infatuation with an unconventional beauty named Lilliane Latvin. Truffaut met Latvin at the Cinémathèque Française
and quit his job as a welder and moved to Paris just to be near her. Like Antoine, he took an apartment across the street from hers so that he could monitor her activities. However, she was ultimately not interested in him nor in any of his friends (she had also attracted attention from Jean Gruault
and Jean-Luc Godard
).
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
— in François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
's series about Antoine Doinel
Antoine Doinel
Antoine Doinel is a fictional character created by French film director François Truffaut. Doinel is to a great extent an alter ego for Truffaut, sharing many of the same childhood experiences, looking somewhat alike and even being mistaken for one another on the street.Although Truffaut did not...
, the character he follows from boyhood to adulthood through five films. The film was made for the 1962
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
anthology collection, Love at Twenty
Love at Twenty
Love at Twenty is a 1962 French-produced omnibus project of Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries...
, which featured shorts from the renowned directors Shintarô Ishihara
Shintaro Ishihara
is a Japanese author, actor, politician and the governor of Tokyo since 1999.- Early life and artistic career :Shintarō was born in Suma-ku, Kobe. His father Kiyoshi was an employee, later a general manager, of a shipping company. Shintarō grew up in Zushi...
, Marcel Ophüls
Marcel Ophuls
Marcel Ophüls is a documentary film maker and former actor.He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of the director Max Ophüls...
, Renzo Rossellini
Renzo Rossellini (producer)
Renzo Rossellini is an Italian film producer and screenwriter, son of Roberto Rossellini. He has produced 64 films since 1964...
and Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
, as well as Truffaut.
Antoine Doinel — and Jean-Pierre Léaud
Jean-Pierre Léaud
-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....
, the actor who played him throughout all five films — had made his screen debut in 1959 with Truffaut's first film, The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers...
. Truffaut's tender, semi-autobiographical film about the young Antoine and his gradual descent into petty crime introduced the world to the French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
, a short-lived but highly influential outpouring of work from young French filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
, and Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and teacher. A figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he was a former editor of Cahiers du cinéma....
.
Plot
Antoine and Colette catches up with Antoine Doinel as a solitary 17-year-old who works at Phillips manufacturing LPs to support himself. He lives in furnished room by himself in Place Clichy, listening to opera and classical music and spending time with René (Patrick Auffay), his school friend from The 400 BlowsThe 400 Blows
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers...
.
One day, while attending a Berlioz Music Programme with René, he spots Colette, a secondary school student, and falls in love for the first time.
Colette is his own age, but unlike Antoine has a warm, supportive family with whom she still lives. Antoine forms a strong friendship with Colette and, eventually, also her parents who begin to treat him as if he were a part of their family.
Colette's feelings for Antoine are at first ambiguous and, harboring some hope that she might grow to return them, he leaves his apartment at the Place Clichy and moves into an apartment across the road from her family's. Although she continues to treat him kindly, it slowly becomes apparent that she is not interested in him romantically. He sulks about this and at first refuses to see her, but he is lured back by a dinner invitation. It is clear that her family still consider him a surrogate son and are possibly hoping for something romantic to happen between the two teenagers.
All of these hopes are dashed, however, when the pretty Colette is met at the front door by an older man. Her parents and Antoine look helplessly on as she disappears off with her date. They are all left to watch television.
Doinel's adventures follow with Stolen Kisses
Stolen Kisses
Stolen Kisses is a 1968 French film directed by François Truffaut. It continues the story of the character Antoine Doinel, whom Truffaut had previously depicted in The 400 Blows and the short film Antoine and Colette...
, Bed and Board
Bed and Board
Bed and board may refer to:* Bed and Board, 1970 French film Domicile Conjugal* Divorce from bed and board, a marital arrangement where spouses live apart but do not legally dissolve the marriage...
and Love on the Run
Love on the Run (1979 film)
Love on the Run is a 1979 French film directed by François Truffaut. It is Truffaut's fifth and final film about the character Antoine Doinel. A lot of the film is made of a "clip show" of the previous films in the series...
.
Development
Truffaut had just finished Jules and JimJules and Jim
Jules and Jim is a 1962 French film directed by François Truffaut based on Henri-Pierre Roché's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund....
in 1962 when he was approached by film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Pierre Roustang for his omnibus film project Love At Twenty
Love at Twenty
Love at Twenty is a 1962 French-produced omnibus project of Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries...
. Truffaut was influential in helping to select Shintarô Ishihara
Shintaro Ishihara
is a Japanese author, actor, politician and the governor of Tokyo since 1999.- Early life and artistic career :Shintarō was born in Suma-ku, Kobe. His father Kiyoshi was an employee, later a general manager, of a shipping company. Shintarō grew up in Zushi...
, Marcel Ophüls
Marcel Ophuls
Marcel Ophüls is a documentary film maker and former actor.He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of the director Max Ophüls...
, Renzo Rossellini
Renzo Rossellini (producer)
Renzo Rossellini is an Italian film producer and screenwriter, son of Roberto Rossellini. He has produced 64 films since 1964...
and Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
as the other directors who would eventually participate in the project. In his book Truffaut On Truffaut, Truffaut later said, "For my part, the French episode gave me the occasion to realize a project I hadn't dared to launch on my own, a short sequel to my first film, The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers...
, in which we would meet up with the young Antoine Doinel three years later having his first sentimental adventure, one that would illustrate the moral: you risk losing everything by wanting too much."
Antoine and Colette is a largely autobiographical work, based on seventeen-year-old Truffaut's infatuation with an unconventional beauty named Lilliane Latvin. Truffaut met Latvin at the Cinémathèque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
and quit his job as a welder and moved to Paris just to be near her. Like Antoine, he took an apartment across the street from hers so that he could monitor her activities. However, she was ultimately not interested in him nor in any of his friends (she had also attracted attention from Jean Gruault
Jean Gruault
Jean Gruault , is a French screenwriter and actor. He wrote 25 films between 1960 and 1995. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the 1980 film Mon oncle d'Amérique.He was born in Fontenay-sous-Bois, Paris....
and Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
).
Cast and roles
- Jean-Pierre LéaudJean-Pierre Léaud-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....
- Antoine Doinel - Marie-France PisierMarie-France PisierMarie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...
- Colette - Patrick Auffay - René
- Rosy VarteRosy VarteRosy Varte is a Turkish-born French actress of Armenian descent. She has appeared in 95 film and television shows since 1949...
- Colette's mother - François Darbon - Colette's step father
- Jean-François AdamJean-François AdamJean-François Adam was a French actor and director mostly famous for his mysterious death.-Career:Adams lived with Brigitte Fossey. Their daughter is the actress Marie Adam. He was an assistant of François Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Melville...
- Albert Tazzi - Pierre SchaefferPierre SchaefferPierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
- Himself