CinemaSerf
7.0/10Aug 11, 2024
At times Jean-Pierre Léaud's "Doinel" character reminded me a little of Charlie Chaplin's "Tramp" as he works his way through this engaging comedy about the lives and loves of a man whom, having just left the army, must adjust to civilian life. Initially, he lucks out as his girlfriend "Christine" (Claude Jade) manages to get her dad (Daniel Ceccaldi) to get him a job. Now a security guard he certainly isn't, so his tenure is short lived but it does introduce him to the intriguing world of the private detective. This leads to a job keeping an eye on the ostensibly upstanding businessman "Georges" (Michael Lonsdale) which in turn sees him meet that man's wife "Fabienne" (Delphine Seyrig) with whom, yep you've guessed... Why would this beautiful and charming woman be married to a shoe salesman? Well as the young man digs deeper, we discover - via a series of increasingly daft scenarios, that "Doinel" is pretty inept at just about everything but that has a charm to it that might just prove surprisingly successful in the least likely of fashions. Léaud is on good form here presenting an amiable buffoon that it's quite easy to like. There's also some enjoyable chemistry between him and both Seyrig and Jade that at times can make you cringe with embarrassment as he struggles to get to grips with his relationships with women. The comedy is plentiful and it's actually quite provocative for the late 1960s. It's a story about sexual awakenings and that elusive sense of self-realisation that I found flew by for a ninety minutes that still works entertainingly now.
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