User reviews

Antoine and Christine now happily married, though life can be quite tough they don't seem worried, selling flowers in the day, trying to make violin pay, and then a baby, to make it all a bit more hurried. A chance presents for Antoine to set sail, on a corporate ladder, the bottom marks the trail, meets a Japanese distraction, causes confusing attraction, it's not the baby that will cry and whine and wail.

The continuing trials and tribulations of Antoine Doinel, who continues to excavate sizable holes to fall in and then spend his time and energy escaping from. Not quite as engaging as Stolen Kisses but enjoyable and relatable nonetheless.

"Bed And Board" is the fourth installment in the great Antoine Doinel (played by a maturing Jean-Pierre Leaud) film series, directed by Francois Truffaut. This film is really almost as perfect as it's predecessor "Stolen Kisses", and (in ways) almost a sort of remake, using the same characters and similar situations. The story begins with a newly weded Antoine, who works as a flower dyer, while his wife teaches musical lessons. Again, Antoine goes through his life trying to find his occupational and romantic nitch. His occupational endeavors consist of becomming the guy who electronically maneuvers model boats at an American corporation. His wife soon is pregnant with his baby boy, and the idealistic domestication becomes shakey, as Antoine begins an affair with a Japanese girl named Kyoko (played by Hiroko Berghauser). What is somewhat interesting, is the French purest attitude (or small town mind set) that seems to take place in the film. The owner of the American corporation is played by American actor Billy Kearns (can be seen playing Freddie Miles in "Purple Noon") and he's the stereotypical baffoon American. Japanese girlfriend Kyoko, is the quiet reserved Asian that thinks of romantic suicidal notions for Antoine and herself. Another outsider (who everyone in the Parisian village is afraid of, until he's found out to be a comedian/ impersonator and NOT a strangler) is treated with contempt until it has been established through media/ television performance spoken in French. But it seems that Antoine and Christine's happiness is being constantly pulled at, by French outsiders. But I suppose this is what Antoine would like us to think. Still the character who (accidently) lies and cheats his way through life. This is a far more cynical version of love, compared to "Stolen Kisses", yet all the more relevent in it's depiction of growing love pains.

The Antoine we see here is more emotionally lonesome than he ever was, yet he's married and has a kid. It still contains some of the greatest romantic moments in cinema history though. The scene where Antoine asks Christine to put her glasses on (one more time) is beautiful. Also the reversal situation of fetching wine from the wine celler, will put smiles on the faces of anyone who'd seen a similar scene as this in "Stolen Kisses". Though Antoine may not be as innocent as he once was in the earlier films, his Antoine is a far more realistic portrayel of men in general. This is truly another wonderful film by Truffaut, that would be as great as "Stolen Kisses" if it had retained some of the innocence. Highly recommended, one of my personal favourites!!! I give this a 13 out of 10!

In "Bed and Board," the boyish Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) settles down to married life with Christine (Claude Jade). But while it seems like a promising idea for this beloved character to move on to the next phase of his life, the film does not live up to its potential.

"Stolen Kisses," the preceding movie, was a romantic comedy with such a consistently sweet and charming tone that it became something more than mere fluff. "Bed and Board" maintains the same sparkling tone for about the first hour. Christine and Antoine's apartment building is inhabited by the quirkiest group of Parisians to come along until "Amélie," thirty years later. (Both movies even have an old man who refuses to leave his apartment.) Indeed, the movie, and its hero Antoine, are in love with quirkiness: Antoine works dyeing flowers and operating remote-controlled model boats, which are even stranger than the odd jobs he held in "Stolen Kisses." There are also some tenderly idiosyncratic scenes between the newlyweds.

But "Bed and Board" becomes much less interesting when it aims for a more serious tone and introduces infidelity into the plot: Antoine cheats on Christine with a Japanese woman, Kyoko. To add insult to injury, Kyoko is a blatant stereotype of the "exotic, submissive Asian woman," wearing kimono and writing calligraphy. Maybe Christine and Antoine were always a mismatched couple—Christine is very practical and bourgeois, while Antoine is a fanciful dreamer—but if he has to cheat on her, couldn't he do it with someone amusing?

Obviously the Antoine Doinel series dealt with some very serious themes in its first installment, "The 400 Blows." But that movie was a unique, distinctive look inside the head of a troubled 14-year-old boy; however, the serious themes of "Bed and Board" are found in innumerable French movies about infidelity. It's too bad that "Bed and Board" falls so flat in its second half, because its first half is whimsical comedy at its best.

And who could imagine that Antoine Doinel, the misunderstood and agitated character played by Jean-Pierre Léaud in "The 400 Blows" would succeed it in life? Now he's married with Christine (Claude Jade), has a strange work, first selling flowers, then controlling little boats by remote control, father of a pretty boy and life goes on with some up's and down's after a little romance with a Japanese girl. Doinel's story in "Domicile Conjugal" ("Bed & Board") is presented as a sweet and funny tale barely remembering the confuse boy of the film released in 1959. But there are moments when the audience is reminded of the young Antoine and his problems with his parents and problems with school (when he decides that his son will be a writer and that he won't have lessons at school, cause of many of the problems of Doniel).

Truffaut's makes his most funniest film here, a humor that is not created with absurd or a slapstick comedy but it is simply a day-by-day of Doniel's presented with charm, humor, originality in memorable moments (Doniel's strange friend who always asks money of him saying that he'll pay in double; or Doniel's breaking the wall of his apartment to make a room for his child; and some conversations between the couple about male nudity and the breasts of Christine, which according to Antoine are different to each other). It takes common and ordinary situations of everyone's lives and makes of it something beautiful, delightful and pleasant to see. And the two main actors are marvelous on screen, have a electrifying chemistry and brilliant performances.

A perfect work and a movie of the highest quality, "Bed & Board" is one of those films that you wanna watch it more than just one time. 10/10

This is the fourth and penultimate film in Truffaut's semi-autobiographical series about the life of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud). The movie depicts Doinel in the early years of marriage to his childhood sweetheart Christine Darbon (Claude Jade). The picture begins showing Antoine trying to scrape a living selling dyed flowers in the busy Parisian courtyard while his wife teaches violin in the apartment above. If this film was a novel you could rip half the pages out to represent the amount of storyline in the picture. But this does not take away anything from this piece of cinematic magic. Truffauts use of the camera and soundtrack is as usual the making of the film.It is obvious that this film is a one-man creation. How many filmmakers could you say that of today? The balance of characters, incidents and minute side glance at daily living restores your faith that art and craftmanship is making a tender comment on life can make a deep one too. The couple soon become parents and Antoine lands, by pure chance, an unprestigious job in a prestigious American construction company. But Domestic bliss soon tires our hero and he is tempted to the bed of a statuesque Japenese girl. The story is told with Truffauts usual wit and charm and filled with affectionate homages to filmmakers from Jean Renoir to Jaques Tati.

Antoine works as a florist's assistant, in the courtyard of his house. Christine, his wife, a violin teacher, finds out she's pregnant. Amid unforeseen circumstances and arguments, Antoine gets involved with a woman, putting his marriage at risk.

From the saga of Antoine Doinel (Truffaut followed the fictional life of this character for 20 years), Bed & Board, the penultimate film in the collection, is the lightest and most entertaining, thus breaking the content of the previous ones, which were material for reflection in the character study and social situation at the time (from the late 60s to the late 80s).

Truffaut never told bad stories, and here is an example of a marriage, which, like so many others, reached the breaking point faster than previously thought, and need help to survive.

The chemistry between Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade is fabulous, with really good scenes and dialogues, even when the result is not as good as expected.

What does it mean to be married, like properly so? As someone who has been in a pretty terrific one for a lot of years, one of the key things is that you should try to, as corny as it may sound to some of you, be friends - nay, to be a best friend - and to actually be in a partnership where the affection has to keep moving to somewhere, even (especially even) if it doesn't feel like it is at times. In Bed and Board, Antoine Doinel has to reckon with what a marriage is and how, whether it's based from where he has been in a home life that was unstable and rather mean and cold on its better times, he can't keep the love and friendship consistent, and certainly not to the level Christine expects or deserves.

I think Bed and Board is most fascinating and involving because it is another part of the complicated saga of Doinel's life. You need that context for it to work so well, and on its own I wonder if it may have been more off putting or simply confusing when very late in the film, once Doinel has been found out by Christine that he's been cheating with a (can't believe I'm typing these words) less interesting Yoko Ono kind if character and has been in this affair for some time and it seems like his marriage may be on the rocks, he calls up Christine multiple times while at dinner with his would-be side squeeze to complain about how miserable he is and... it's almost like he needs permission for it to all be over, that he's OK and that it'll all work out.

Ill leave it to you to watch it to find that out. But suffice it to say this is on its own terms at times sort of equal parts mundane and entertaining in a completely off-beat and off-kilter way, such as the various interlopers and neighbors in the apartment complex where Antoine and Christine (a very engaging and excellent and can hold her own with Leaud level performer in Claude Jade) live together, and as well equal parts amusing and heartbreaking.

I mean, this is a movie where at one point Antoine breaks through a wall with an axe or sledgehammer like a more jokey Jack Torrance, and at another when Christine confronts Antoine with his infidelity (she finds it out because the Japanese lady has been leaving messages in roses which in a string of events I won't get into end up in the apartment and she sees them) by uh dressing up in Japanese garb and make up and wtf I laughed but I'm not sure why. Oh, and Jacques Tati makes a cameo as M Hulot getting on a train because Truffaut is I guess making a Hulot movie only Doinel is like far from that(?)

I love a good marriage drama or story on infidelity, and this absolutely has that if nothing else because this couple with Leaud and Jade are wonderful together, as they convey how each really in their own way is trying to make this marriage work, whether it's in those little moments in bed when it's time to turn off the lights (a particular tender moment involving her glasses is something that feels lived in like if Truffaut or his writers didn't take it from a real moment then the actors did), or when they do have their blow-out fights (that poor mattress).

Again, it's fascinating that this is the follow-up so soon after Stolen Kisses as it has sometimes the same light tone but other times manages to probe into the existential maybe-trauma exploration of 400 Blows, and eventually in the film it becomes clearer that the little things with Doinel, how he acts or reacts or closes up or looks at another person, is all about what HE is looking for or needs, while Christine has to just take it.

In other words, this is a good movie, at times really good, but it is contigent on if you've seen the other parts of what these people have gone through. As a tale of marriage it is both sweet and unfortunate, like biting into a bar of rich milk chocolate that has a sour patch kids middle, and one where Truffaut (because after all this is his and to an extent Leaud's alter ego) is self criticizing himself and men like them. And the filmmaker's idiosyncrasies make it linger and pop more than what you'd get with anyone else, though I can't help but feel the parts are greater than the whole here. Oh well, on to the last part!

This is the fourth installment in Truffaut pentalogy regarding of "Antoine Doinel's" life. As i have read, Doinel was something like his alter ego. For reference, these are my previous ratings :

THE 400 BLOWS : 6,3/10.

Antoine et Colette: 7,2/10.

Baisers volés : 7,1/10

It's obvious i consider it as the worst movie of this pentalogy. To be honest, i have not watched any movie of his which blew my mind. I don't doubt his greatness, it's just my personal tastes and preferences. AMERICAN NIGHT is my favourite movie of his.

Still, it's somewhat enjoyable, chemistry between the leading couple is good and it didn't bore me. However, i couldn't stand this Doinel character here. He became disgusting. Too much insolence and self obsession. Imagine a Woody Allen character without charm, a character that doesn't care at all about everyone's opinion. Still neurotic but not attractively neurotic. This is Doinel in BED AND BOARD. It's a totally forgettable movie, there is nothing clever/charming/witty here.

I gave it 6 stars because it is well directed, actors are good and at times, it was interesting.

No #4 in the Antoine series, five films beginning with 400 Blows, Antoine, the dreamer, has got himself a fine young wife, his opposite really, prim and well mannered. Their romantic first year is a series of funny neighbors and comical whimsy. I learned how to die the color of flowers, more interesting than one would think. I learned about hurrying a wife along by throwing her coat and bag down a stairway. I learned that relationships go wrong when one gives in to lust. Hey, I knew that.

Jean-Pierre Leaud has a physical resemblance to Truffaut. These episodic films, the ones in color that I have seen remind one of a HBO mini-series. His autobiographical Doinel is from a broken family. In the 400 blows, a masterpiece really of the New French Cinema in the late 50's, we see the lonely kid grasping for understanding. In subsequent films, we see the young adult Doinel grasp at relationship and career. The next beautiful woman is always around the corner. In Bread and Board, the femme fatale is 70's Japanese Go Go Chick, Hiroko Berghauer. Notice the heavy eye make-up on the women that make them look like zombies.

Ufff I loved the chemistry betweeen Antoine and Christine, simply Charming. The films shows that "modern" marriage of the end of XX century. A woman who still keeping talking to her ex-husband. A husband, that was unfaintful and still kept a good relationship with Christine. However, you can still see, a behaviour of a male chauvinist and a woman "submissive", just that with very open mind view.

The cinema of Truffaut is evolving with his character. it is a saga that you need to watch in its entirety.

Unlike Boyhood in 2014, the cinema of Truffaut is evolving in tone, and in its thematic throughout the saga, you can rest between each movie of the saga, and that is contributing a lot to my appreciation of the film, you get time to think about each story.

The major problem of this film series is that it seems improvised, the first movie wasn't meant to be the pilot of multi-decade film franchises.

For this particular movie, Truffaut is addressing more adult theme like adultery, the genius of Truffaut can take this taboo subject and turn it into a hilarious comedy with hitting jokes, the directing complements that, the director varies his style, yes he obviously pays homage to his recurrent trademark and previous movies, but it innovates so you don't feel like you are watching the same movies over and over again.

Despite being worse than the precedent, I still highly suggest this movie.

The 4th film in the Antoine Doinel series directed by Trauffaut which follows a young couple trying to run their marriage but doing so in a rather childlike way.

I think you have to be a big Trauffaut lover for this. I did quite like it, it was witty and insightful about marriage, particularly a young marriage. It also borrowed from time to time from Jacques Tati which was well done - the brief scene with his character was great fun and spot on. The language was sharp and amusing but overall I seem to be the only person on the planet who didn't disappear into a state of Grace watching it and found the Japanese storyline bewildering and not very believable. I realise I'm alone in not being an admirer, but there you are. Enjoy.

Surprised there aren't more reviews for one of this great director's better films, an acute, light hearted, but no less serious for that, examination of a loving yet quite dysfunctional union. At first I suspected Godardish sexism at play, what with the self centered, supercilious Antoine being given more screen time and favor over the bourgeois, smug Christine. But as the film progresses so does Claude Jade's fine performance and we see the greater maturity and humanity of Madame as opposed to Monsieur Doinel. As for Jean Pierre Leaud he continues to etch, in Antoine, one of the greatest coming of age portrayals in Gallic cinema, in my opinion.

Bottom line: A bit too long for a comedy and some of the subsidiary characters are caricatured, but otherwise a fine film. A minus.

Seven stars. This is Truffaut and Leaud's fourth Doinel film. I've seen the first two, but haven't come across the third (Stolen Kisses). The 400 Blows is one of the essential films of cinema history. This is a pleasing follow-on. It's a pretty astonishing feat to craft a series of stories about one character, using one actor, as he grows from truant tweener to the edge of adulthood (yes, I know there was eventually a fifth film). The deftness of the direction and performance are impressive. And the density of both the humor and the drama are as well. Neither Antoine nor Christine handle the events of the story in a very mature way. But, of course, that's the point. And that they end up coming to something of a mature resolution to the problem is the coda to the story of all four films. I should stress that you can watch any of the three Doinel films I've seen as a standalone. The references to the earlier films are there, but it's not like dropping into a random episode of Game of Thrones.

Truffaut was one of the great film-makers of family stories. He didn't go much for flash, but he was very honest, and had a great eye. That's why his films are still very much worth watching. 6 July 2022.

Highly esteemed, master filmmaker that Francois Truffaut was, not all his pictures were equal. 'The 400 blows' is an undeniable classic, for example; I enjoyed 'Stolen kisses' but personally didn't think much of it; heretofore 'Shoot the piano player' has been my favorite of anything I've watched from him. I'm so very pleased to say, however, that for the moment a new champion is crowned, for 'Bed and board,' also known as 'Domicile conjugal,' is one of the most perfect movies that I've recently watched. Given the far-ranging hegemony of American cinema I understand how this isn't more widely known and highly acclaimed, but I think that's a damn shame, because I love this and can only give it my highest, heartiest recommendation.

Between the long-running saga of Antoine Doinel that Truffaut kicked off eleven years before, and collaboration here with co-writers Claude de Givray and Bernard Revon - and even as another entry in that saga was yet to come - this really feels like the culmination of all the skill and intelligence that the man had been developing and cultivating in his career. What we have here is a portrait of domestic bliss between Antoine and Christine, troubled by domestic strife borne of Antoine's impulses and self-centered defensiveness. From start to finish, however, it is filled with delightful, sprightly humor and general mirth, to the point that even the more dramatic beats carry a certain insurmountable playful wit and lightheartedness; we hope all ends well, but even if it doesn't, the journey is unremittingly pleasant. The feature boasts charm and warmth in its entertainment that far exceed what many, many others can claim, and to be honest, those feelings come across in every last element of the film.

Thanks to cinematographer Nestor Almendros and composer Antoine Duhamel, every sight and sound to greet our eyes and ears is a real treat, making the viewing experience even more unfailingly enjoyable than it already was. Every theme and shot are as exquisite as they are light on their feet, and the same sense of gaiety quite applies to the production design, costume design, and hair and makeup. Truffaut's direction has perhaps never felt as smooth, natural, and altogether flawless as it does here; every shot and scene is marked with fluidity, expertise, and sublime insight such that it feels like nothing here could be except for exactly as we see it. And what can I say of the cast except that they are an utter joy? It's equally true of everyone in front of the camera, even though the likes of Hiroko Berghauer, Daniel Ceccaldi, and Claire Duhamel are much less prominent. Above all, however, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade are truly exceptional as Antoine and Christine, breathing life into their roles with nuance, personality, and emotion that are as real as they could be. 'Bed and board' could be even more tightly focused on the couple, removing other narrative aspects, and Léaud and Jade alone would make such an edit just as worthy.

And none of this would be possible if not for such tremendous writing. From the get-go it would seem to superficially portend mild, airy nothings, but there's wonderfully absorbing substance under that pastel veneer that is at once both sweetly rich and flavorful and as bewitching and meaningful as any more hard-hitting drama. It's a rather delicate balance that Truffaut attempts here, and in the hands of anyone less capable it may not have turned out well. From top to bottom, however, this is a demonstration of the utmost shrewd calculation and practiced of hands, resulting in a tableau that's as enchanting as rewarding as they come. I will admit that I had some doubts when I sat to watch, as not every well regarded classic meets with equal success for all, and again, even Truffaut's works haven't been all of one kind for me. I couldn't be happier with just how very good this is, though, and more so than with anything else the director gave us, this is surely a must-see. 'Bed and board' is without question a great movie fully deserving of the filmmaker's considerable reputation, and is very much worth seeking out. That's all there is to it.

I've always meant to finish the five-film series that is Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel saga, and I think today's the day. This is part 4, and it's pretty solid overall. It's aged in the sense that I don't think many people in their mid-20s would deal with these sorts of problems nowadays; maybe when they're 30 , if they're "lucky" (yes, young people have access to advanced technology and what have you, but the odds are stacked against them when it comes to how much everything costs).

But still, in terms of looking at how Antoine tries and struggles to settle down with the early stages of family life, I'd say that Bed and Board works fairly well and is pretty engaging, for the most part.

Much as I appreciate a few of Truffaut's films, especially The 400 Blows, I find most of his movies to lack a proper script and convey a sense of vagueness that can be downright annoying. Bed & Board, another chapter in the Antoine Doinel saga, is particularly underwhelming. Antoine is no longer the charming, troubled child from The 400 Blows, and the script lags terribly. In the first 20 minutes, the scene never leaves the courtyard of the apartment building where Antoine lives with his attractive wife Christine. Various minor characters chat about nothing, and the most exciting event is Antoine and Christine going to dinner at her parents' house. Riveting, isn't it?

Some might argue that this is a character-driven story. But even if that's the case, the character of Antoine is merely a projection of Truffaut himself, a serial philanderer with a penchant for countless affairs. Antoine eventually lands a job with an American company and predictably flirts with a Japanese customer, who soon becomes his lover. Yet, Antoine is bored with married life and equally bored with his gorgeous Japanese mistress. The realization that they have nothing to say to each other comes as no surprise.

Antoine continues meeting Christine to see their son, named Alphonse because Antoine whimsically decided it was a good name, despite Christine's dislike for it. Their quarrels are childish, but they are allegedly still "in love," whatever that means. The epilogue is rather disheartening. After a brief fling with a prostitute and a disastrous dinner with the Japanese mistress, Antoine and Christine reunite, only to end up like their neighbors, with the husband throwing the wife's coat and bag down the stairs because she takes too long to get ready when they need to go out.

The pace of the movie is uneven, with nothing happening for most of the film and the ending feeling rushed. None of the characters, aside from Antoine, are developed, and many scenes are sketchy, like the mysterious actor, the guy who constantly asks Antoine for money and even a cameo of Mr. Hulot catching a train (!) Technically, the movie is also underwhelming, with a bizarre scene where Antoine and Christine talk to each other from separate rooms while the camera inexplicably pans to a window.

Not Truffaut's best. Underwhelming and dated.