MovieChat Forums > Les poupées russes (2005) Discussion > Didn't Truffaut already do this movie in...

Didn't Truffaut already do this movie in 1979?

posted 18 years ago by cobratriangle
6 replies | jump to latest

Maybe its just me but the description of this film reminds of The Antione Doinel films by Truffaut. Particularly "Love on the Run"

here is the desription of Truffaut's film:

Antoine Doinel is now more than thirty. He divorces from Christine. He is a proofreader, and is in love with Sabine, a record seller. Colette, his teenager love, is now a lawyer. She buys Antoine's first published autobiographical novel. They meet again in a station...

Here is the description for Russian Dolls:

Xavier is now thirty. No longer a student, he is not yet a well-balanced, fullfiiled adult either. His career is unsatisfying : far from being the renowned novelist he aimed to be he must be content with little jobs such as reporter or ghost writer. His greatest "achievement" in "literature" is his collaboration to the script of a corny TV soap ! His sentimental life is not much better, rhythmed by one night stands and unfinished romances. It looks as if when he seduces a woman beautiful outside and inside such as Kassia or Wendy he can't keep them. Will he ever bring his life into focus?

Does anyone else notice the outright similarity here?

[–] EpistaxisOfEvil 18 years ago

Apparently not.

[–] pandaGuRL_17 16 years ago

The other person probably hasn't seen the other films.
I, on the other hand, have seen the entire Antoine Doinel series in addition to L'Auberge Espagnol and Les Poupees russes, and I agree that it they are very similar.

The characters of Antoine and Xavier also have very similar characteristics in that they are ultimately jerks and the audience shouldn't like them, since they got themselves into the messes they call their lives. I feel more satisfied with these films more than Antoine Doinel's though.

They are quite similar, but these days movie ideas are recycled over and over...
Just change the time, place, ages, locations, and you have a brand-spanking new film on your hands.

Enjoy.h

[–] bogwart-1 15 years ago

"...that they are ultimately jerks and the audience shouldn't like them, since they got themselves into the messes they call their lives."

Wow. Must be nice to be perfect, to have a perfect life and never get yourself into messes. On the other hand, it sounds boring as hell to me.

[–] KMitford 12 years ago

Just mentioned this on another thread that these movies remind me so much of the
Antoine Doinel series. Not that I am complaining I love them so it is great to have a modern version that is no a remake as such.

[–] maenad-3 12 years ago

I just saw this film on Sundance. I wager that anyone who has seen the Doinel films was immediately struck by the resemblance to Truffaut's solipsistic and very annoying egotist.

[–] faux-monnayeurs 10 years ago

It's probably pointless to reply to a post that is a good seven years old but: Klapisch has always said that when he was weighing the idea of making a sequel to "Auberge espagnole" he had in mind to keep it similar to the Antoine Doinel-series, to follow one character through his different stages of life. Not surprising, "Les poupées russes" (!) has multiple layers, and the hommage to Truffaut and the Doinel-series is one of them.