Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run

I remember loving Stolen Kisses when I first saw it, but now I can barely remember what it's about because I mix it up with all of the other Doinel films. I think this is probably a common experience. I'm not sure this moment was in this movie, but I loved when Doinel addressed his bosses wife with a masculine title and then ran away. As Doinel, Leaud is able to be a total scoundrel and still be a sympathetic character. I loved the series of jobs he had in this film. He went from being in the army to working at the front desk of a hotel, being a detective, being a stock-boy (as an undercover detective), and finally being a TV repair man. The autobiographic thread of Truffaut's life continued in this film, except I think he added some elements he wished happened in his own life, like having a relationship with a very beautiful, older woman.
Something else I thought was interesting that we didn't really get to in class was the end of Stolen Kisses, where the strange man professes his love to Christine. His love for her isn't really any more ridiculous than Doinel's for the women in his life (especially when we get to Love on the Run). The man acts like Doinel isn't even there, and Doinel just sits and listens to the man, without defending his own love for Christine.

Bed and Board
I enjoyed Bed and Board as well. I loved the "strangler" and the way the neighborhood reacted to him. When no one knew who he was, he seemed to always be lurking, like he was up to something dark and secretive. When they see him on TV though, the neighborhood's whole reaction to him changes. Being on TV changes him from a nobody to a somebody, and knowing no more about him than they did before, the neighborhood embraces him and views him as a source of pride.
I liked the way the library staircase was used as a metaphor. When Christine asks him why they need a staircase when they don't have a library, Antoine responds that someday they will. The staircase is something useless and a little bit ridiculous right now, but represents hope for growth and the future.
Another thing I really liked about the film is that it shows how quickly the new and exotic can become tedious and monotonous, through Antoine's relationship with the Japanese woman.

Love on the Run was a bit of a let-down for me. I’m going to have to watch it again after there has been more time since I’ve seen the other Doinel films. I didn’t like how much of the film was flashbacks, and I literally had to leave the room because I couldn’t take it. When we were forty minutes into the film, I felt like nothing new had happened and there was no point to it except to make another movie with Léaud. The most interesting part of the film was when Antoine meets with her mother’s old lover. We get to see a glimpse into someone else’s perspective on his life, and it shed a little light on how biased towards Doinel the other films in this series have been. The fact that Doinel does not even come to his mother’s funeral and hasn’t ever visited her grave makes him less sympathetic. Overall, I liked that the film showed that the stories of people’s lives aren’t stories of progress, but that people remain pretty much the same over time. This may not be very inspiring, but it’s more real, and I’m more interested in films that show people as they are than as we’d like them to be.