The new wave to me is all about reflection to one’s self. It’s a movement young filmmaker took head on to discover more about themselves than anything else in a sense. I believe that Francois Truffaut had a strong connection to Antoine Doinel and why he made him the way he is. I can only speculate how similar this character is to Truffaut but knowing what I know about the new wave movement, I believe it’s more than likely the director drew from his own personal experiences as a child and implemented them into this film.
The protagonist Antoine Doinel finds himself struggling with social and political issues that arise. Whether they be from his home life or from school. What I found difficult to understand during this film was it seemed as if Antoine was a wounded soul from the get-go, as if he’s already been hurt from something or someone before we even see him in the film. As the film progresses and Antoine runs away from home, I believe that and all the other troublemaking decisions he makes is not because he’s a bad kid but because he is lost and does not know who he is so he’s trying to discover himself in a sense. He only feels that’s possible on his own and some may say he discovers himself when he finally gets to the ocean he’s been meaning to see.
This film is so immersed into the new wave era because of the self-reflection taking place in Antoines life, something we have not seen much of in earlier films. Take a film like “Psycho” for instance, we only see Norman Bates as a deceiving murderer for much of the film. We do not see him show any real emotion after his heinous crimes. We see him for what he truly is as we progress through the film but I feel Norman himself does not learn anything new about himself, something I mentioned earlier that movies prior to this era lacked.
Stefano Allegras blog 