A double bill of sorts on Jean-Pierre Leaud on Mubi is just the excuse we need to re-examine the career of the legendary French actor. The...
A double bill of sorts on Jean-Pierre Leaud on Mubi is just the excuse we need to re-examine the career of the legendary French actor.
The streaming platform is showing Leaud’s breakthrough The 400 Blows as well as his most recent movie, The Death of Louis the XIV. Also on Mubi is another rarely screened title, The Rise and Fall of A Small Film Company.
From the youthful exuberance of his earlier performances to the graceful late-life reckoning of ageing, ailments and the inexorable advent of mortality, Leaud has deservedly achieved the status of a movie immortal. Over six decades and counting, 77-year-old Leaud has cemented his reputation as one of the most accomplished and versatile actors of his generation.
He is also widely acknowledged as the fictional alter ego of the influential French New Wave director Francois Truffaut, with whom he frequently collaborated over the years. Truffaut gave Leaud his first break by casting the then 13-year-old as the rebellious juvenile Antoine Doinel in his celebrated quasi-autobiographical debut The 400 Blows in 1959.
The film’s popularity spurred Truffaut to further explore Doinel’s character as well as Leaud’s powerful persona in four subsequent films – Antoine and Collette (a segment from the 1962 omnibus film Love at...
