I really enjoyed this film and eagerly anticipate watching the rest of the "Doinel Series". One point in this one confused me though. What the hell is Antoine doing when he's in front of the mirror repeating names (including his own)? Thanks for any replies.
shareSimply put, he's sorta freaking out. Antoine can't decide between the two women (Christine and Fabienne), and is probably trying convince himself that one of them is the right choice--repeating their name over and over again to see if it "feels" right.
He even says his own name in part, I think, because he might as well throw it in while he's at it (going crazy and all). But also, by turning the focus back on himself, Antoine seems to be wondering not only which woman he wants, but what exactly he wants in a woman to begin with. That is, not simply who is objectively speaking "better," but who is specifically better for him.
Thanks for the reply! Good theory.
I weep for the unwashed masses who enjoy watching their Pan-and-Scan videos on 13-inch screens!
Antoine Doinel, Antoine Doinel, Antoine Doinel. If you try repeating his name over and over again, or try repeating your own name over and over again while looking at yourself in the mirror, you'll see that your name, which is so tied to personal identity, becomes abstracted and garbled. I think he's saying here, Who the hell am I?
shareJust a label. Just a combination of a few letters... reduced to a repetitive, grating sound in that scene. No inherent meaning in any of it.
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
I love that scene! I think a part (not all) of the reason it was there to get the user to respond "What the hell is Antoine doing?". So I guess it is nothing to be confused about. Anyway, the way he acts in that scene is so hilarious!
shareTruffaut said he didn't wanted Antoine to discuss his love affairs with some friend in a café or something like that we saw a hundred times, so he had him talking to himself thru the mirror. Great Great scene!
shareTruffaut says he didn't' want the affair with the older woman to take on the sleaze quality that such arrangements often have in movies. That's why he cast the somewhat etherial Delphine Serig and dressed her in white and kept their interaction so sanitized.
As a result AD was dealing with a triangle in that mirror scence. By triangle I mean three connecting entities, not a "love triangle". Of himself he could be sure. Of Christine he could be fairly sure; they had some history and she was age-appropriate even if she had become detached from her. Of Fabienne however he could not be sure at all. "Can I love someone who probably can't be there for me?" Could he love someone, who he was so much in love with that he ran out of her apartment when she went to put on some music -- and act which can be either innocent or subjective -- can I love somone who is mostly fantasy, mostly wish-fulfillment.
The love issue was "right hemisphere" but he was trying to apply a left-hemisphere solution, logic and language. As another person said, he went nuts in that scene but not in a way that was very out of control. More like the fearsome but limited danger that we experience when we go on a circus ride and for a few moments do not have our normal relationship with gravity. We are on a ride but the ride ends.
If I run a race by the rules, then shut up about drugs. ,,, Floyd Landis
You all have very good theories about the scene (an absolutely brilliant moment in film) but I wonder if any of you thought, as I did, that Scorsese might have used this scene as the inspiration for the famous "you talkin to me" sequence in Taxi Driver. I know Scorsese had seen his share of French new wave so it is not impossible. I find that both scenes have the same sort of abstract, voyeuristic and unsettling qualities, albeit one is certainly a tad more unsettling!
shareon a side note for days after watching this movie i couldn't help but annoy my girfriend with relentless repition of "Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel Antoine Doinel" it's really fun to do for like a solid 10 minutes.
shareIndeed, it feels like 10 minutes in the film!
I never cease to admire how a Truffaut or Kurosawa will just s-t-r-e-t-c-h out a moment like that ... the six names that Doinel continually repeats give us more plot than three pages of "Hollywood-style" exposition could have done...
Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard,
Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard,
Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne Tabard, Fabienne TABARD,
FABIENNE TABARD, FABIENNE TABARD, FABIENNE TABARD, FABIENNE TABARD,
FABIENNE TABARD!!!