‘Domicile conjugal‘ (‘Bed & Board‘ in the English distribution) was made by François Truffaut 11 years after ‘Les quatre cents coups’, one of the three films that launched the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ and changed the direction of French and world cinema. The main character is the same – Antoine Doinel played by Jean-Pierre Léaud – but 11 years have passed and we find him married and searching for his way in life. Apparently, in terms of subject matter, we are dealing with a film much closer to the classic French cinema against which the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ filmmakers had revolted a decade earlier – a comic drama about the crisis of a marriage, not very different from what Ingmar Bergman would bring to perfection three years later with his ‘Scenes from a Marriage’. And yet, with its nonchalant approach and its style of cinematography, ‘Domicile conjugal‘ also belongs to the New Wave and is a good prelude to the major films that Truffaut would make in the too short time he had left to live and make films, as well as to many other productions that focus on contemporary (at the epoch of filmmaking) couples and the problems of relationships between the partners and with the world around them.
Antoine and Christine are married and quite happy. She gives violin lessons, he dyes flowers. Yes, there is such a profession and those who will see the film will learn some specific technologies. The two live in a typical Parisian neighborhood, with some nice neighbors, some other annoying ones and one really unsettling. When Christine becomes pregnant and one of the flower dyeing technologies fails, Antoine gets a job (with a bit of luck typical of a French comedy) at an American company where his role is to remotely control ship toys in a pool for visitors. Among them appears a young Japanese woman, beautiful and exotic enough to tempt Antoine into an adventure that will evolve in an unexpected way.
The approach is light-hearted. The crisis in the couple’s relationship is believable and resembles many of those that have happened to us or that have happened or are happening in so many couples we know, but the way in which the two young people are presented – beautiful, sometimes insecure, certainly very much in love with each other – makes us believe from the beginning that the relationship will withstand the ‘accidents’. Jean-Pierre Léaud grew up with his character who has become ‘bourgeois’ in some respects (the routine of marriage, the desire for stability), but, like the director whose alter-ego he seems to be, remains in other respects in the realm of fantasy: atypical professions and weakness in the face of female temptations. His partner is Claude Jade, a beautiful actress who seemed to me to have been very talented. Why didn’t she have a more spectacular career? Perhaps the physical resemblance to Catherine Deneuve, thanks to which she possibly got the role in this film, harmed her in the long term? Of the audacity of the Nouvelle Vague, in addition to the romantic-detached approach to a story with auto-biographical touch, we can also identify the freedom of using the camera, the naturalness of the filming out-doors and the quotes from other films of his generation. Truffaut would make another film in the Antoine Doinel series in the late 1970s, in which the couple’s story would become even more complicated. For now, however, in ‘Domicile conjugal‘, the atmosphere is relaxed and viewers who will watch or re-watch this film will not regret it.