I suppose I missed the connection when I first saw Four-Eyed Monsters. I don't think it diminishes my opinion of FEM to have recalled that this wasn't completely original. Why not pay homage to Truffaut? I love Truffaut but am only now warming up to the rest of the Antoine Doinel series. I mean, it kind of falls apart. It becomes a wink and a nudge like Ocean's 13.
But what I keep recalling is the scene in Bed and Board (1970) when, just for an instant, Claude Jade is overpoweringly beautiful. Despite everything that goes wrong for them in their relationship, her beauty is paralyzing.
Her character is pregnant already, although neither of them know it yet. He asks for the toothpaste, she tosses it to him out the window and gives the thumbs up.
Domestic bliss.
But that frame before the thumbs up is the one that sticks with me.
He can do nothing but love her, despite everything. He is smitten. And just for that audacious moment, so are we. Claude Jade standing in a window.