Bed And Board

Truffaut follows the narrative of his long-standing hero Antoine Doinel into a fourth instalment.

Keeping very much to mood and style of its predecessor, Stolen Kisses, with Claude Jade returning now as Antoine's wife we find Antoine  a father but still a feckless dreamer and skirt-chaser, very much the adult version of the young scallywag of The 400 Blows. When we first find him he is dyeing carnations but he soon gets a job with an American company operating model boats. Here he meets and opportunistically starts an affair with a Japanese girl, resulting in his being ejected by Christine forcing Antoine to re-evaluate his behaviour, at least for a while.

Bed And Board is a slight film that uses a lot of sight gags in the tradition of Jacques Tati whose M. Hulot makes an uncredited appearance here to amuse although much of that humour belongs to the 60s infatuation with Continental style whilst the charm of the film relies very much on whether or not one finds Antoine and his earnest self-preoccupation appealing.

 

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