Truffaut Shorts (1999)

Synopsis: François Truffaut's 1957 short LES MISTONS is a beautifully photographed black-and-white film that tells one of the sweetest love stories ever captured on camera, through the antics of a very... François Truffaut's 1957 short LES MISTONS is a beautifully photographed black-and-white film that tells one of the sweetest love stories ever captured on camera, through the antics of a very honest narrator. The story follows a pack of young boys who become obsessed with a girl in a love affair, Bernadette (Bernadette Lafont). They track her every move--sneaking up behind her and kissing the seat of her bicycle, waiting to fetch stray balls for her while she plays tennis, and writing her name in chalk all over the streets of town. Containing a few of the most recognizable sequences in film history--boys pretending they're stars of gangster films and running through the streets ripping down movie posters--this short film is essentially a blueprint for THE 400 BLOWS and a must-see for any fan of Truffaut or the French New Wave. In ANTOINE ET COLLETTE, the second film in Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series (which began in THE 400 BLOWS), the recognizable antihero, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud), is now an 18-year-old student who's constantly chasing Collette (Marie-France Pisier), a young woman he meets at an orchestral concert. However, Collette insists on treating him like a boy and torturing him with cruel games. This hardly deters the magnificent Antoine, who moves into an apartment directly across from her family and then curries favor with her parents. Triumphant blasts of classical music from Antoine's record player convince viewers to keep rooting for him despite his perpetually shunned advances, such as his priceless movie theater make-out attempt. This classic Truffaut short originally appeared in the film anthology LOVE AT TWENTY. [More]

Starring: Bernadette Lafont, Gérard Blain, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier

Starring: Bernadette Lafont, Gérard Blain, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier, Patrick Auffray

Director: François Truffaut

Director: François Truffaut

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