Antoine and Colette 4K 1962

Of the entire cycle by François Truffaut about Antoine Duanel, this is probably the best part (of course, not counting the title film “400 Blows”). What word could be used to characterize this little film sketch, actually a sketch from the collection of film novels “Love at Twenty”? Charm. The charm of youth, the charm of spring (or is it fall?) Paris, the charm of beautiful music (according to the script, Antoine is fond of classical music, thanks to which he meets Colette), the charm of first love, freedom, youthful hopes. To the charm, there is also sadness, if we take into account the context of the whole pentalogy. After all, we learn later that Antoine will never find the “true” love he dreams of in “Antoine and Colette”, despite his active search, the only result of which will be a string of women who deceived him.

Unlike “The 400 Blows,” there are no social issues in “Antoine and Colette.” It is the story of Antoine's first adolescent love and the inherent mistakes and follies he consistently makes. In principle, all this could have happened to a teenager who does not have, as the protagonist does, a record of leaving his family, being expelled from school, serving time in a juvenile detention center, and so on. And in this we can see the only weakness of the movie: there is no psychological connection between Duanel from “400 Blows” and him from “Antoine and Colette” (and this is the problem of the whole cycle, as Truffaut himself admitted).

Otherwise, it is, I repeat, a charming and light short film by François Truffaut, which can be rewatched an infinite number of times with the clear realization that there will never be another film like it again.