The women of Francois Truffaut films almost always fall into three different categories - dream goddesses, mother figures or unabashed whores. The last group usually provide consolation when the first two have come up short as was the case with 1968's Stolen Kisses and Bed & Board. The man is vulnerable and liable to rejection (as Truffaut's own mother rejected him) and therefore prone either to despise or to idealize women - which leads to an inability to involve himself in the vacillations and imperfections of a long-term relationship.
Bernadette (Bernadette Lafont) is the glorified sex-object in The Mischief Makers, inaccessible and therefore desirable Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) is initially merely an enigmatic smile in Jules et Jim. In the pursuit of which a close male friendship is dissolved and two deaths ensue: Julie (Jeanne Moreau) is literally a man-killer in The Bride Wore Black as is Julie/Marion (Catherine Deneuve) In La Sirene du Mississippi (Mississippi Mermaid,1969).
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| What the hell is thiamine mononitrate? (Mississippi Mermaid, 1969) |
There is clearly a great deal of solitariness in Truffaut's films. From survival in The 400 Blows to civilization in L'Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970) and the indulgent celebration of childhood in 1976's Small Change). Truffaut appears to protect and defend the innocence and purity of childhood and adolescence on the screen as if a form of compensation for the neglect and unhappiness he himself experienced.