Antoine Doinel

Antoine Doinel is a fictional character created by French film director François Truffaut. Doinel is to a great extent an alter ego for Truffaut, sharing many of the same childhood experiences, looking somewhat alike and even being mistaken for one another on the street.

Although Truffaut did not initially plan for Doinel to be a recurring character, he eventually returned to the character in one short-subject and three full-length films after introducing him in his debut feature, The 400 Blows. In all, Truffaut followed the fictional life of Antoine Doinel for over 20 years.

Doinel was played in all five movies by Jean-Pierre Léaud. Doinel's lover and later wife, Christine Darbon, was acted by Claude Jade in three films. His unrequited love interest Colette Tazzi (Marie-France Pisier) appears in the second, third (in a brief cameo) and fifth films. Patrick Auffay appears as Antoine's friend René in the first two films. François Darbon appears as Colette's father in the second and as a military adjudant in the third film. Numerous other characters re-appear through flashbacks utilizing footage from earlier films.

The set of five films has been named "The Adventures of Antoine Doinel." The set is made up of the following:

Truffaut's debut was the film The 400 Blows. The 1959 film introduces us to the 14-year-old Doinel, a troubled Parasian boy who skips school, eventually turning to street life and petty crime in response to neglect at home by his parents. Towards the end of the film, he is sent to a reform school, from which he escapes for places unknown.

The next appearance of Doinel was in the film short Antoine and Colette, which was part of the 1962 omnibus film L'amour à vingt ans. Doinel is now age 17 and becomes obsessed by Colette, a music student, but she only wants to be friends.

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