Antoine and Colette (Short)
I have to imagine that, when Richard Linklater decided to revisit the lives of Jesse and Celine in his “Before Sunset” (or even their scene together in “Waking Life”) that he had Francois Truffaut in mind, and his continuing of the story of Antoine Doinel, the young protagonist of his debut film, “The 400 Blows,” played by Jean-Pierre Léaud. This isn’t the work of an artist whose lost inspiration but finds it renewed in telling a new chapter in the story of a character he loves, and means a lot to me. Of course, Doinel is the most autobiographical of characters for Truffaut, and when he was asked to contribute a short film for the anthology project, “Love at Twenty,” it makes sense that he would give us the second chapter of Antoine’s story.
We pick up with Antoine’s life after he escaped the detention center at the end of “The 400 Blows,” and we learn from the narration that he was in and out of trouble before being put on probation. Long away from his mother and stepfather, he lives on his own and works at a record company pressing vinyl records. He loves his job, and he loves music, and one of the perks of his work is tickets to local orchestral concerts. While at one concert with his best friend, Rene (Patrick Auffay), his eye catches a music student, Colette (Marie-France Pisier), and he is immediately taken with her. He determines to meet her, and after another week, he does, and they hit it off right away. Though Colette says he is a natural with romantic thoughts, this is his first love, so when things don’t go quite the way he expects, he has a hard time with it. He still tries until he’s no longer given a reason to, and that happens in quite an awkward moment in front of her parents.
Though not quite on the same level as “400 Blows,” “Antoine and Colette” is a beautiful transitional film for Antoine, as Truffaut, inspired by his own first love, captures the love-struck passion, and gut-punching heartache, that goes into a first romantic experience. Leaud and his director are perfectly in sync as we watch Antoine continue to learn hard lessons in life, and grow further into a man whose experiences mirror the filmmaker telling them. This is a short, sweet and painful piece of filmmaking, and I wouldn’t have it any other way coming from Truffaut.
