The 400 Blows
1959
François Truffaut sensitively re-creates the trials of his own difficult childhood in The 400 Blows, the film that marked his emergence as one of Europe’s most brilliant auteurs and signaled the beginning of the French New Wave.
Box Set Info
- Spine #185
The release of François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows 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 box set.
Collector’s Set Includes
Stolen Kisses
1968
Jean-Pierre Léaud returns in the third installment in the Antoine Doinel series. It is now 1968, and the mischievous and perpetually love-struck Doinel has been dishonorably discharged from the army and released onto the streets of Paris, where he embarks on a series of misadventures.
Bed and Board
1970
Lightly comic, with a touch of the burlesque, the fourth installment in François Truffaut’s chronicle of the ardent, anachronistic Antoine Doinel, Bed and Board, is a bittersweet look at the travails of young married life and the fine line between adolescence and adulthood.
Love on the Run
1979
Antoine Doinel strikes again! In the final chapter of François Truffaut’s saga, we find Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), now in his thirties, convivially concluding his marriage, enjoying moderate success as a novelist, and clinging to his romantic fantasies.
Disc Features
FIVE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION SET:
- New digital transfers of all films, enhanced for widescreen televisions
- Truffaut’s early short film, Les mistons
- Audio commentary for Les mistons by assistant director and future co-writer Claude de Givray
- Audio/visual “primer” for Les mistons by film historian Serge Toubiana
- Working with François Truffaut: Claude de Givray and Bernard Revon, An exclusive re-edited version of a 1986 interview with Truffaut co-writers Claude de Givray and Bernard Revon, originally conducted for Rainer Gansera’s documentary Arbeiten mit François Truffaut
- Excerpt from the rare documentary François Truffaut (1961) featuring Truffaut discussing his influences and beginnings, along with Les mistons and The 400 Blows
- Interview from the 1981 French TV show Champ contre champ in which Truffaut discusses Jean-Pierre Léaud, and the challenges of creating films that are intensely personal, yet popular in appeal
- Promotional art gallery for The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board and Love on the Run
- Two audio commentaries for The 400 Blows: one by cinema professor Brian Stonehill and another by lifelong friend of Truffaut, Robert Lachenay
- Rare audition footage of The 400 Blows stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan
- Newsreel footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud in Cannes for the showing of The 400 Blows
- Excerpt from a French TV program with Truffaut discussing his youth, critical writings, and the origins of Antoine Doinel in The 400 Blows and Antoine and Colette
- Television interview with Truffaut about the global financial reception of The 400 Blows and his own critical impression of the film
- Theatrical trailers for The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run
- Introduction to Stolen Kisses by film historian Serge Toubiana
- Excerpt from the TV show Cinéastes de notre temps: François Truffaut, dix ans, dix films in which Truffaut discusses his vision of the Doinel cycle, and the complex relationship between Doinel and actor Jean-Pierre Léaud
- Archival newsreel footage of the “Langlois Affair,” documenting protests by Truffaut and other French film industry luminaries against the removal of Cinémathèque française director Henri Langlois
- Promotional spot featuring Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut appealing for public support of Henri Langlois
- Newsreel footage of Truffaut’s impassioned rally to shut down the 1968 Cannes Film Festival in support of striking students and workers
- Rare behind-the-scenes footage with Truffaut at work on the Bed and Board set, and being interviewed along with actress Claude Jade
- Rare television interview with Jean-Pierre Léaud discussing his feelings about Truffaut and Antoine Doinel, and his thoughts about “ending” the series
- Excerpt from the 1972 documentary Approches du cinéma: François Truffaut ou la nouvelle vague, in which Truffaut addresses the complexities of Antoine Doinel
- Rare television interview excerpt of Truffaut and actress/co-writer Marie-France Pisier discussing their working styles and their feelings about Love on the Run
- Excerpt from the 1980 TV show Cinescope in which Truffaut addresses his misgivings about his finale to the Doinel series, and illuminates his feelings about Jean-Pierre Léaud and Antoine Doinel
- New and improved subtitle translation for all films
