Word: doinel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...unsuspecting victim of the machinations of some willful force. This force takes on a humorous cast when we see him tumble into bed with various scheming females. The almost careless and carefree use of the camera in Stolen Kisses is intentional and underlines the unpredictable life-style of Antoine Doinel (Leaud...
...also a chapter in Truffaut's continuing cinematic autobiography. Antoine Doinel, once again played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, is Truffaut's self-styled persona, who got banished to reform school in The 400 Blows and was spurned by his girl friend in Love at Twenty. Now, in Kisses, he is seen leaving the army after struggling to get a psychological discharge. "You can always sell ties," shrugs his commanding officer, adding hopefully: "I hope we never meet again." His girl friend's father fixes him up with a cushy job as a hotel night clerk...
...telling his story of a 12-year-old boy unwanted at home and in trouble at school, Truffaut has capitalized on the youthful exuberance and curiosity of his protagonist. Young Antoine Doinel is often in flight and the main quality of the film is one of swirling motion. Streets, houses, neon signs, and country landscapes are constantly whizzing by in blurred succession. The camera only once focuses on the runner directly--in his last escape from a Correction Institution--otherwise, the viewer is absorbed in this kaleidoscopic world of the breathless fugitive...
...scenes in the Doinel home are illuminated through the technique of off-camera dialogue. The parents argue about their son while he lies in bed trying to fall asleep, and through his expression, Antoine confides to the audience feelings he cannot communicate to his parents. Again and again, the viewer gains such confidences of the children and comes to regard the adult world through their eyes...
...plight of Antoine Doinel could easily lend itself to appalling pathos, but Truffaut (who also wrote the screenplay) has scrupulously avoided this danger. Child-like comic effects predominate in many scenes, particularly those without adults; and realizing that in spite of his trials Dolnel can still behave like a happy and naive little boy, the viewer is made acutely aware of the wide gulf between the child and the adult. The film thus evokes a sense of frustration rather than pity...