François Truffaut’s The Adventures of Antoine Doinel

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. The American Cinematheque is proud to present Truffaut’s celebrated saga in its entirety, courtesy of Janus Films: the feature films THE 400 BLOWS, STOLEN KISSES, BED AND BOARD, and LOVE ON THE RUN, and the 1962 short subject, “Antoine and Colette,” all in new 4K restorations.