Domicile conjugal (1970)

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

François Truffaut (scenario and dialogue) and
Claude de Givray (scenario and dialogue) ...

Release Date:

9 September 1970 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Some time after "Baisers Volés", Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Christine Darbon (Claude Jade) are married and Antoine works dying flowers...

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Violin | Flower | Serial Killer | Debt

Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Antoine Doinel
Claude Jade	...	Christine Darbon Doinel
Hiroko Berghauer	...	Kyoko (as Mademoiselle Hiroko)
Barbara Laage	...	Monique
Danièle Girard	...	Ginette
Daniel Ceccaldi	...	Monsieur Darbon
Claire Duhamel	...	Madame Darbon
Daniel Boulanger	...	Ténor
Silvana Blasi	...	Silvana
Pierre Maguelon	...	Ami de Césarin
Jacques Jouanneau	...	Césarin
Claude Véga	...	L'étrangleur
Jacques Rispal	...	Monsieur Desbois
Jacques Robiolles	...	Cadger
Pierre Fabre	...	Le ricaneur

Also Known As:

Bed & Board (Canada: English title) (USA)
Bed and Board (UK)
Non drammatizziamo... è solo questione di corna! (Italy)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

When Claude Véga appears, he impersonates Delphine Seyrig and quotes a line from "L'Annee Derniere A Marienbad" ("Last Year At Marienbad"). He also quotes from a line that Delphine Seyrig spoke in the previous Antoine Doinel film, "Baisers Volees" ("Stolen Kisses").

Quotes:

Christine Doinel: I don't like this business of writing about your childhood, dragging your parents through the mud. I don't know much, but one thing I do know - if you use art to settle accounts, it's no longer art.

Movie Connections:

References L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

The first half sparkles, but it gets lackluster by the end

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.