Autobiographical Distance
Drawing on the filmmaker's own life but keeping it at arm's length, often through a fictional stand-in. The result is precise and unsentimental, and it can question how memory flatters us.
How this film uses it
Antoine carries over from Truffaut's earlier film about a boy who feels unwanted. Here he is a young man who reads novels and writes long letters to a girl. Truffaut watches him with fondness, and he never lets Antoine look like a hero.
Where to see it
The army discharge. Antoine is let go as unfit because he prefers reading and writing to Christine over obeying orders.
