Antoine Doinel is a boy growing up in France during the early 1950s. The movie opens to a group of Antoine’s classmates passing around a picture of a half-naked woman while writing their papers. When the picture comes to Antoine he defaces it and attempts to pass it forward when he is caught by his teacher who makes him stand in a corner the rest of the lesson and deprives him of recess. While alone he writes an angry poem about his teacher (whom he calls Sourpuss) on one of the classroom walls. One of the children tells and the teacher yells at him to clean up his mess only to yell at him later when it is not clean enough. At home he acts as his mother's servant and maid, fetching her slippers and setting the table for supper. When she arrives home from work, she sends Antoine to the store for flour. On the way home he overhears a woman talking about her daughter’s difficult birth which makes him cringe(to shrink in fear or servility). He catches up with his father on the way home who shows him a fog light he bought for the races he plans to attend that Saturday. Despite his cheery attitude, his mother appears cold and annoyed with his jokes and sense of optimism. When his mother tells his father she would prefer to stay at home on Sunday rather than go to the races he accuses her of having an affair. His mother sends Antoine to take out the trash and go to bed (which is a folding cot in the hallway with no bed-sheets, only his sleeping bag).The next morning Antoine wakes up late for school and realizes that he didn’t do the extra assignment the teacher gave him for defacing the classroom walls. As he hurries to school, he runs into his best friend, Rene, who convinces him to skip school since it will be much easier than trying to sneak in. On their way back from the arcade, Antoine catches his mother kissing another man on a street corner. He doesn’t say a word and moves on, even though his mother saw him. After they collect their bags, Antoine realizes he’ll need a note tomorrow explaining his absence. Rene gives him an old note he never used for Antoine to copy in his mother’s handwriting. When he comes home, his father tells him his mother called to say her boss needed her for year-end inventory and wouldn’t be home until later. While cooking dinner he encourages Antoine to buy his mother a birthday present and tells him she doesn’t mean to be so hard on him and that she's just stressed working part-time and taking care of the house. Later that night, when he can’t find his Michelin Guide, Antoine’s father snaps at him and accuses him of stealing it. After Antoine is in bed, his mother arrives home. Antoine overhears her explaining to her husband that her boss dropped her off, setting off more accusations of her affair and more fighting about his poor behavior.
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The film provides a snapshot of Paris in the late 50s. Shot in black and white and told from Antoine's viewpoint, we often see exactly what he sees through the choice of camera angles. His perspective also shows us that he thinks of himself in very different ways from the way in which he is viewed by others. We can empathize with his situation completely. The film demonstrates how frightening, daunting(tending to overwhelm or intimidate) and impossible life can seem when you're growing up. It is said that this film is heavily autobiographical and that the child actor Jean-Pierre Leaud was chosen because of his physical resemblance to Truffaut as a child. This is unsurprising given the sympathetic and almost paternal way in which Truffaut treats his protagonist. He is what many of the adults around him would see as a troublesome little brat(an ill-mannered immature person). However in reality he is just a child who feels alienated from his surroundings. With a lack of love and attention both at home and at school, he feels a longing to escape to something else, even at this young age. This film is a masterpiece, in that the images last a lifetime In many ways, Antonie Doinel is not only the cinematic embodiment of Truffaut, but also the French New Wave as a whole. Consider the scene when Doinel cites Balzak in a homework assignment. He pays homage(pay respect) like the New Wave directors would, but he is shot down for plagiarism(to commit literary theft:present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source) 下のバナーをクリックしていただければ、有り難いです。このブログを続ける励みになります！
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