A rather unsatisfying end of the Doinel cycle
22 January 2002
This is the fifth and last part of Francois Truffauts Antoine Doinel cycle, a biographical movie series about the growing up of a romantic Parisian, played by Jean Pierre Leaud all the time, and all his struggles with love and life which was produced over a period of 20 years.

This last part from 1978 shows us Doinel doing what he's also doing in the previous four parts - falling in love with numerous women, trying to keep up relationships, looking for love, flirting etc. While the first part from 1959 showed us Doinel's childhood in a poor family with a hard and beating father and his longing for respect and love, the following parts are less interesting in my opinion.

The final chapter is rather superfluous, with jokes falling flat, no real script, no suspense or a really interesting story line, and the actors are just running around most of the time. If you have watched the previous Doinel films it might be interesting to see this sequel (which is not really an end), but I suggest you to watch the first Doinel movie "Les 400 coups" ("The 400 Blows") instead, or Truffauts "L'homme qui l'amait les femmes" ("The Man Who Loved Women"), a far more interesting study on love, obsession and fetishism.
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