| The release of François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Les
Quatre cents coups) in 1959 shook world cinema to its foundations.
The now-classic portrait of troubled adolescence introduced a major
new director in the cinematic landscape and was an inaugural gesture
of the revolutionary French New Wave. But The 400 Blows did not only
introduce the world to its precocious director—it also unveiled his
indelible creation: Antoine Doinel. Initially patterned closely after
Truffaut himself, the Doinel character (played by the irrepressible
and iconic Jean-Pierre Léaud) reappeared in four subsequent films
that knowingly portrayed his myriad frustrations and romantic entanglements
from his stormy teens through marriage, children, divorce, and adulthood.
With The Adventures of Antoine Doinel, Criterion is proud to present
Truffaut’s celebrated saga in its entirety: the feature films The
400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run, and
the 1962 short subject, Antoine and Colette, in a special edition
five-disc set. |