This short is a largely autobiographical work, based on 17-year-old François Truffaut's infatuation with the unconventional beauty Liliane Litvin. Truffaut met Litvin at the Cinémathèque Française and quit his job as a welder and moved to Paris to be near her. Like Antoine, he took an apartment across the street from hers so that he could monitor her activities. However, she ultimately was not interested in him nor in any of his friends. (She had attracted attention from Jean Gruault and Jean-Luc Godard.)
Antoine Doinel is, to a great extent, an alter ego for François Truffaut. In all, Truffaut followed the fictional life of Antoine Doinel for over twenty years in a total of five films, this one the second.
This short was made for the 1962 anthology collection Love at Twenty (1962), which features shorts from the renowned directors Shintarô Ishihara, Marcel Ophüls, Renzo Rossellini, and Andrzej Wajda, as well as François Truffaut.
A series of five films directed by François Truffaut has been named "The Adventures of Antoine Doinel." They consist of the following, in order: Truffault's directorial debut The 400 Blows (1959) (The 400 Blows), which introduces us to the 14-year-old Doinel, a neglected, troubled Parisian boy. Doinel's second appearance was in the film short Antoine and Colette (1962) (Antoine and Colette), which was part of the anthology film Love at Twenty (1962) (Love at Twenty). In it, Doinel, now 17 years old, becomes obsessed with Colette, a music student, but she only wants to be friends.
The third installment, Stolen Kisses (1968) (Stolen Kisses), shows a more mature Doinel, after a dishonorable military discharge, in a two unstable romantic relationships with Christine and Fabienne. In the fourth foray, Bed & Board (1970) (Bed and Board), Doinel and Christine are married but he suddenly becomes obsessed with a young Japanese woman. Doinel's final fifth adventure comes to a close in Love on the Run (1979) (Love on the Run), where his romantic attentions shift from his ex-wife Christine to record seller Sabine.
The third installment, Stolen Kisses (1968) (Stolen Kisses), shows a more mature Doinel, after a dishonorable military discharge, in a two unstable romantic relationships with Christine and Fabienne. In the fourth foray, Bed & Board (1970) (Bed and Board), Doinel and Christine are married but he suddenly becomes obsessed with a young Japanese woman. Doinel's final fifth adventure comes to a close in Love on the Run (1979) (Love on the Run), where his romantic attentions shift from his ex-wife Christine to record seller Sabine.