Look Back in Anger, adapted from John Osborne’s hit play that
spawned the “Angry Young Man” persona and influenced a generation of British artists
for its “kitchen-sink realism”, was a bleak, gritty, incendiary and powerful portrayal
of existential angst at the backdrop of a destructive love triangle in a working-class
milieu. Jimmy Porter (Richard Burton) is a bitter, cynical and disillusioned
man in a turbulent relationship with his lovely, fragile wife Alison (Mary
Ure), with whom he lives in a dingy apartment at a dreary blue-collar
neighbourhood; during day time he runs a small store at the local flea market
with his sole friend (Gary Raymond), while post sun down he loves dabbling in
jazz music with his trumpet. His self-loath, barely suppressed anger and
derision for the upper class has seeped into his marriage, which his loving
wife is often at the receiving end of; things become further complicated when
Alison learns that she’s pregnant, followed by a visit for a few days from
Alison’s strikingly attractive and outspoken friend Helena (Claire Bloom), a
struggling actress for the stage, with whom Jimmy gets embroiled in a torrid
affair. Burton gave a volcanic performance as the film’s volatile protagonist,
succeeding in evoking empathy despite his brutish behavior, while both Ure and
Bloom were, too, gave fine turns as the quintessential “wife” and “whore”,
respectively. The incisive script marvelously captured the play’s fury,
ferocity and edginess, the deep sense of tragedy and fatalism was superbly visualized
through the moody, expressionistic B/W photography, and the brilliant,
throbbing jazz riffs added a melancholic air to the downbeat atmosphere and complemented the collective anger of a generation against social injustices and class system voiced by the protagonist.
Director: Tony Richardson
Genre: Drama/Marriage Drama/Psychological Drama/Urban Drama
Language: English
Country: UK
The
fascinating cinematic lifecycle of Truffaut’s unforgettable alter-ego Antoine
Doinel – his troubled adolescence in the heartbreaking The 400 Blows, his tryst with first love in the muted Antoine et Colette, his romantic and
professional misadventures in the whimsical Stolen Kisses and his marital woes in the serio-comic Bed and Board- was brought to a memorable close, not just
chronologically but also from thematic and narrative standpoints, with the reflective
and quietly melancholic Love on the Run.
The film unfolds with 30-something Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Christine
(Claude Jade) getting the 1st ever no-fault divorce in France; he’s
in a tentative relationship with Sabine (Dorothée), owner of a small record
store, and is working as a proofreader at a printing shop; meanwhile, he’s
earned some success with his heavily autobiographical debut novel that brings
him in contact after many years with Colette (Marie-France Pisier), his first
love who’s now a lawyer. The narrative was regularly interspersed with
flashbacks from the earlier films in the series, lovingly reminiscing certain indelible
moments from his life and juxtaposing with his present. Memories, both joyous
and poignant, therefore formed a key thematic strand, and exquisitely
summarized his journey and effectively accentuated the quirks, the
idiosyncrasies, the escapades, the immaturities, the chaos and the regrets that
have all added to the personal arc of Antoine Doinel. The fluid, bittersweet, brilliantly
shot and marvelously edited final chapter of ‘The Adventures of Antoine Doinel’, through intermingling of humour and
pain, provided a fine summation of not just the fabled protagonist’s journey,
but also, in a way, that of its creator, viz. François Truffaut.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Romantic Drama
Language: French
Country: France
The
zany escapades of Truffaut’s endearing alter-ego in Stolen Kisses made way for a serio-comic examination of marriage in
Bed and Board, the penultimate
chapter in ‘The Adventures of Antoine
Doinel’. Like the preceding chapters in this series, but unlike Love on the Run, this could easily serve
as a standalone film. Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud), happily married to his sweetheart
from the previous film Christine (Claude Jade) – he working as a florist and
she as a music teacher while expecting their first child – is living in a cozy
apartment in a charming neighborhood filled with eccentric characters – an elderly
man who hasn’t left his apartment in years, a punctual opera singer who follows
a ritualistic pattern while waiting for his wife, a slacker who keeps borrowing
money from Antoine, among others. However, upon getting fired after a comic
mishap, he gets employed at an American firm for steering radio-controlled toy boats,
and there becomes embroiled in a dreary extra-marital affair with a Japanese
lady (Hiroko Berghauer) with whom he can’t even communicate, leading to dire
repercussions on his marriage. Though filled with funny moments and even
self-reflexive asides – a TV presenter delivers a hilarious gag on Last Year at Marienbad and Jacques Tati
has a cameo in his Monsieur Hulot avatar – the tone here was more towards the
poignant, bitter and satirical side of the scale, and ended on an wry, ironic
note when he accidentally bumps into his father-in-law at a brothel. Léaud as
the passive, drifting Antoine, and Jade as the lovely, headstrong Christine,
made for a memorable pair in their journey from carefree adolescents living in
a bubble to bored adults in a crumbling marriage.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama/Marriage Drama/Romantic Comedy
Language: French
Country: France
Stolen Kisses was the 3rd installment in ‘The Adventures of Antoine Doinel’,
sandwiched between Antoine et Colette
and Bed and Board, and also the most
lighthearted of the lot. The breezy, playful and delectable romantic comedy
comprised of an abstract and freewheeling storyline, with the narrative
changing directions regularly, and was filled with whimsical humour and zany
developments. Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud at his most deadpan comic), at his most
irreverent and picaresque, has just been dishonorably discharged from the army
after being in and out of military prison for chronic disregard of authority, upon
which he seeks to rekindle his tentative relationship with the demure and
lovely Christine (Claude Jade); interestingly, as in the earlier short, he has
excellent relationship with her parents (Daniel Ceccaldi and Claire Duhamel),
but fortunately has better luck with the lady this time around. Meanwhile, he
moves from one idiosyncratic job to another with ludicrous regularity – he
starts out as a naïve night clerk at a small hotel, then moves on to being
hired as a bumbling private detective during which time he is briefly doubles
as a shoe-store stock boy, and finally ends as an ineffectual TV repair man. In
the film’s most tonally lyrical section, Antoine becomes drawn to and has a
brief fling with a seductive and attractive married woman (Delphine Seyrig), who’s
much older to her, in possibly a nod to Mike Nichols’ The Graduate.
The romantic escapades and professional misadventures, which ended with a
hilarious non-sequitur climax, underscored Truffaut’s social and personal
observations. The film was dedicated to Henri Langlois, but amusingly, the
Langlois Affair featured only as passing references that Antoine is glibly
oblivious of.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Comedy/Romantic Comedy/Urban Comedy
Language: French
Country: France
Fresh
from smash critical successes of The 400 Blows, Shoot the Piano Player and
Jules et Jim, Truffaut was
contemplating what to do next when he, along with Shintarô Ishihara, Marcel Ophüls, Renzo
Rossellini and Andrzej Wajda, was approached to be part of the anthology film Love at Twenty. And voila, he decided to
renew his association with his alter-ego Antoine Doinel and muse Jean-Pierre Léaud
for the sparkling, semi-autobiographical short Antoine et Colette. Working at a Phillips record manufacturing unit
in sync with his love for music and leading a solitary life in Paris, 17-year
old Antoine spends his evenings attending music performances and seminars with
his childhood friend René (Patrick Auffay).
One day, while attending a Berlioz concert, his attention is drawn to Colette (Marie-France
Pisier), a beautiful high school student, and falls in love with her. However,
despite his valiant attempts at impressing her by taking her to music
conferences and even moving to a hotel facing her apartment, all he ends up
doing is befriending her parents (François Darbon and Rosy Varte), as Colette
doesn’t get romantically attracted to him despite their growing friendship. Based
straight out of his life – 17-year old Truffaut, while attending a screening at
Cinémathèque Française, had met and fallen head over heels for a dazzling girl
named Liliane Litvin, and had unsuccessfully pursued her with a lot fervour
along with her fellow suitors Godard and Jean
Gruault – the short was a delectable watch courtesy its disarmingly simple
premise, freewheeling sensibilities, and deft mix of amusing and reflective
moments, and set the thematic tone of romantic complications for the rest of
Antoine Doinel series.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama/Romantic Drama/Urban Drama/Film a Clef
Language: French
Country: France
