François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is a classic. Not only is it one of cinema's best films and a foundation of French New Wave, it also affectingly and rivetingly depicts an anomie-filled childhood. Released in 1959, it was a comment on French society which pulled no punches yet had warmth at its core. The magnetic star was Jean-Pierre Léaud, playing the then 13-year-old anti-hero Antoine Doinel with a panache which seemed as though he was refracting his own persona.
Truffaut did not leave it alone and four more Doinel vehicles followed: Antoine and Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed & Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). A half-hour section of the portmanteau film L’amour a vingt ans, Antoine and Colette found the older and less-wise Doinel attempting to romance Colette (Marie-France Pisier). Like Doinel and his future wife Christine (Claude Jade), Colette became a recurring character in the films. This box set collects the four stand-alone DVDs of the full-length films with no material additional to the existing extras (Antoine and Colette is included on the Bed & Board disc – it would, chronologically, make more sense with either The 400 Blows or Stolen Kisses). A keen price is the driver, and anyone already owning each DVD need not seek this out.
Despite The 400 Blows’ epochal nature, each of the subsequent films is a less impactful, quirky romantic comedy of manners. All are overshadowed by their forebear. Doinel is tracked through his relationships, marriage, fatherhood and divorce. He publishes a self-serving book on his life and frequents prostitutes, but otherwise just-about holds down a series of inane jobs: he operates the remote control for model boats in a harbour demonstration; he dyes flowers; he is an incapable TV repair man. Seen in toto over the films subsequent to The 400 Blows, his charm wears thin as does the whimsy. He is capricious, a clever-arse, selfish and vain. But he charms many of those around him. The 400 Blows is a five-star classic. Overall though, this is a three-star set. Truffaut and Léaud should have left it alone after The 400 Blows. Eric Rohmer did this sort of thing much better.