Bed & Board

No #4 in the Antoine series, five films beginning with 400 Blows, Antoine, the dreamer, has got himself a fine young wife, his opposite really, prim and well mannered. Their romantic first year is a series of funny neighbors and comical whimsy. I learned how to die the color of flowers, more interesting than one would think. I learned about hurrying a wife along by throwing her coat and bag down a stairway. I learned that relationships go wrong when one gives in to lust. Hey, I knew that.

Jean-Pierre Leaud has a physical resemblance to Truffaut. These episodic films, the ones in color that I have seen remind one of a HBO mini-series. His autobiographical Doinel is from a broken family. In the 400 blows, a masterpiece really of the New French Cinema in the late 50's, we see the lonely kid grasping for understanding. In subsequent films, we see the young adult Doinel grasp at relationship and career. The next beautiful woman is always around the corner. In Bread and Board, the femme fatale is 70's Japanese Go Go Chick, Hiroko Berghauer. Notice the heavy eye make-up on the women that make them look like zombies.

Antoine and Christine now happily married, though life can be quite tough they don't seem worried, selling flowers in the day, trying to make violin pay, and then a baby, to make it all a bit more hurried. A chance presents for Antoine to set sail, on a corporate ladder, the bottom marks the trail, meets a Japanese distraction, causes confusing attraction, it's not the baby that will cry and whine and wail.

The continuing trials and tribulations of Antoine Doinel, who continues to excavate sizable holes to fall in and then spend his time and energy escaping from. Not quite as engaging as Stolen Kisses but enjoyable and relatable nonetheless.

And who could imagine that Antoine Doinel, the misunderstood and agitated character played by Jean-Pierre Léaud in "The 400 Blows" would succeed it in life? Now he's married with Christine (Claude Jade), has a strange work, first selling flowers, then controlling little boats by remote control, father of a pretty boy and life goes on with some up's and down's after a little romance with a Japanese girl. Doinel's story in "Domicile Conjugal" ("Bed & Board") is presented as a sweet and funny tale barely remembering the confuse boy of the film released in 1959. But there are moments when the audience is reminded of the young Antoine and his problems with his parents and problems with school (when he decides that his son will be a writer and that he won't have lessons at school, cause of many of the problems of Doniel).

Truffaut's makes his most funniest film here, a humor that is not created with absurd or a slapstick comedy but it is simply a day-by-day of Doniel's presented with charm, humor, originality in memorable moments (Doniel's strange friend who always asks money of him saying that he'll pay in double; or Doniel's breaking the wall of his apartment to make a room for his child; and some conversations between the couple about male nudity and the breasts of Christine, which according to Antoine are different to each other). It takes common and ordinary situations of everyone's lives and makes of it something beautiful, delightful and pleasant to see. And the two main actors are marvelous on screen, have a electrifying chemistry and brilliant performances.

A perfect work and a movie of the highest quality, "Bed & Board" is one of those films that you wanna watch it more than just one time. 10/10

"Bed And Board" is the fourth installment in the great Antoine Doinel (played by a maturing Jean-Pierre Leaud) film series, directed by Francois Truffaut. This film is really almost as perfect as it's predecessor "Stolen Kisses", and (in ways) almost a sort of remake, using the same characters and similar situations. The story begins with a newly weded Antoine, who works as a flower dyer, while his wife teaches musical lessons. Again, Antoine goes through his life trying to find his occupational and romantic nitch. His occupational endeavors consist of becomming the guy who electronically maneuvers model boats at an American corporation. His wife soon is pregnant with his baby boy, and the idealistic domestication becomes shakey, as Antoine begins an affair with a Japanese girl named Kyoko (played by Hiroko Berghauser). What is somewhat interesting, is the French purest attitude (or small town mind set) that seems to take place in the film. The owner of the American corporation is played by American actor Billy Kearns (can be seen playing Freddie Miles in "Purple Noon") and he's the stereotypical baffoon American. Japanese girlfriend Kyoko, is the quiet reserved Asian that thinks of romantic suicidal notions for Antoine and herself. Another outsider (who everyone in the Parisian village is afraid of, until he's found out to be a comedian/ impersonator and NOT a strangler) is treated with contempt until it has been established through media/ television performance spoken in French. But it seems that Antoine and Christine's happiness is being constantly pulled at, by French outsiders. But I suppose this is what Antoine would like us to think. Still the character who (accidently) lies and cheats his way through life. This is a far more cynical version of love, compared to "Stolen Kisses", yet all the more relevent in it's depiction of growing love pains.

The Antoine we see here is more emotionally lonesome than he ever was, yet he's married and has a kid. It still contains some of the greatest romantic moments in cinema history though. The scene where Antoine asks Christine to put her glasses on (one more time) is beautiful. Also the reversal situation of fetching wine from the wine celler, will put smiles on the faces of anyone who'd seen a similar scene as this in "Stolen Kisses". Though Antoine may not be as innocent as he once was in the earlier films, his Antoine is a far more realistic portrayel of men in general. This is truly another wonderful film by Truffaut, that would be as great as "Stolen Kisses" if it had retained some of the innocence. Highly recommended, one of my personal favourites!!! I give this a 13 out of 10!

In "Bed and Board," the boyish Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) settles down to married life with Christine (Claude Jade). But while it seems like a promising idea for this beloved character to move on to the next phase of his life, the film does not live up to its potential.

"Stolen Kisses," the preceding movie, was a romantic comedy with such a consistently sweet and charming tone that it became something more than mere fluff. "Bed and Board" maintains the same sparkling tone for about the first hour. Christine and Antoine's apartment building is inhabited by the quirkiest group of Parisians to come along until "Amélie," thirty years later. (Both movies even have an old man who refuses to leave his apartment.) Indeed, the movie, and its hero Antoine, are in love with quirkiness: Antoine works dyeing flowers and operating remote-controlled model boats, which are even stranger than the odd jobs he held in "Stolen Kisses." There are also some tenderly idiosyncratic scenes between the newlyweds.

But "Bed and Board" becomes much less interesting when it aims for a more serious tone and introduces infidelity into the plot: Antoine cheats on Christine with a Japanese woman, Kyoko. To add insult to injury, Kyoko is a blatant stereotype of the "exotic, submissive Asian woman," wearing kimono and writing calligraphy. Maybe Christine and Antoine were always a mismatched couple—Christine is very practical and bourgeois, while Antoine is a fanciful dreamer—but if he has to cheat on her, couldn't he do it with someone amusing?

Obviously the Antoine Doinel series dealt with some very serious themes in its first installment, "The 400 Blows." But that movie was a unique, distinctive look inside the head of a troubled 14-year-old boy; however, the serious themes of "Bed and Board" are found in innumerable French movies about infidelity. It's too bad that "Bed and Board" falls so flat in its second half, because its first half is whimsical comedy at its best.