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Bed and Board (film)

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1970 film by François Truffaut
Bed and Board
Theatrical release poster
FrenchDomicile conjugal
Directed byFrançois Truffaut
Written by
Produced byMarcel Berbert
Starring
CinematographyNestor Almendros
Edited byAgnés Guillemot
Music byAntoine Duhamel
Production
companies
  • Les Films du Carrosse
  • Valoria Films
  • Fida Cinematografica
Distributed by
  • Valoria Films (France)
  • Fida Cinematografica (Italy)
Release dates
  • 9 September 1970 (1970-09-09) (France)
  • 31 January 1971 (1971-01-31) (Italy)
Running time100 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • Italy
LanguageFrench
Box office1,010,797 admissions (France)

Bed and Board (French: Domicile conjugal, lit. 'Marital Home') is a 1970 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by François Truffaut, and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade. It is the fourth in Truffaut's series of five films about Antoine Doinel, and directly follows Stolen Kisses (1968), depicting the married life of Antoine (Léaud) and Christine (Jade). Love on the Run concluded the story in 1979.

Plot

Antoine and Christine are now married and living in a small apartment in Paris that her parents have found for them. In it, she gives violin lessons, while he works in the courtyard dyeing carnations for flower shops. When his experiments with colouring agents backfire, he loses his job. He learns that an American hydraulics company is hiring and, despite speaking very little English, Antoine applies for the job. His opponent is a much more qualified candidate with a letter of recommendation that proves it. However, the company's owner ends up believing the letter refers to Antoine, and hires him. The secretary tries to fix this mistake but is ignored.

Antoine's new job consists of demonstrating model boats to potential customers in a mock-up harbour. Christine gives birth to a baby boy, whom she names Ghislain, but Antoine registers him as Alphonse, preferring that name. Despite initially hating that name (believing it sounds too "provincial") and vowing to change it back, Christine eventually ends up calling the baby Alphonse.

While at work, Antoine meets a young Japanese woman named Kyoko, the daughter of a client, and is smitten with her. He sees her playing alone with the boats and accidentally dropping her bracelet in the mock-up harbour, though she leaves without mentioning the incident to anyone. Antoine later recovers the bracelet and goes to her apartment. Kyoko is moved by this gesture, and the two begin an affair. Unaware that he is married, she falls deeply in love with Antoine and sends him a bouquet of tulips with love notes hidden in their petals. Antoine tries to get rid of the tulips, but they are eventually found by Christine. He passes them off as a gift to Christine, who gladly puts them in a vase. However, she finds out about the affair when the tulips bloom and Kyoko's notes fall off the petals.

Antoine is banished from the bedroom by a furious Christine and eventually moves out to a hotel, while his wife makes a life for herself and the baby. However, Antoine keeps in touch with Christine, who still worries about his well-being. Antoine grows bored with Kyoko, which she seemingly does not notice. Unable to be with Christine either, Antoine decides to have sex with a prostitute. Afterwards, he runs into Christine's father in the brothel. The latter remains unashamed, seeing this as a normal part of a married man's life. During dinner at a restaurant, Antoine constantly neglects Kyoko, taking multiple trips to the telephone booth to call Christine and express his dissatisfaction with Kyoko. After the last call, Antoine returns to the table to find that Kyoko is gone, leaving him a note that reads "Drop dead".

One year later, Antoine and Christine are back together, raising Alphonse in their apartment. Their neighbours, an older married couple, believe that Antoine and Christine are now finally, truly in love with each other.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

John Simon wrote that Bed and Board "gives no offense, and no enlightenment".

Accolades

Year Award ceremony Category Nominee Result
1971 NBR Awards Top Foreign Language Films Bed and Board Won

References

  1. Soyer, Renaud (21 October 2014). "François Truffaut Box Office". Box Office Story (in French). Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  2. Allen, Don (1985). Finally Truffaut. New York: Beaufort Books. pp. 231–232. ISBN 978-0-8253-0335-7.
  3. Simon, John (1983). John Simon: Something to Declare Twelve Years of Films from Abroad. Clarkson N. Potter Inc. p. 34.

External links

François Truffaut
Films directed
Short films
Written only
Books
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