Beginners' French New Wave: The 400 Blows

[Basil]

"You know, here, it's not forbidden to escape. It's forbidden to get caught."




Dedicated to pixote.

[Moviebuff28]

WOW!  This is an incredible film and easily one of the best classic films of all time.  It is emotionally devastating because of how bleak it was.

[Kevin Shields]

Here's my review of the film that I wrote 3 years ago.  It's been years since I've seen that film.  Yet, I remembered being very sad after seeing it.  I was more saddened by Antoine's own world after seeing the short Antoine et Collette.  She was a bitch. 

[Sam the Cinema Snob]

I hate to be Devils advocate here but I was extremely underwhelmed by this film. Don't get me wrong, I still think this film is really good, I just don't think it's a masterpiece. A few things drag it down for me. For some reason the school sequences really didn't work for me. I know it's an important part of his life but I just didn't think they worked integrally with the rest of the film. Also I found the cinematography to be lacking. The camerawork is solid but the visuals themselves are lacking. Composition, contrast and lighting all seem poorly done and are rarely used effectively in the film. That being said there are two exceptions, the sequence with the glass door and the closing scene. Both worked for me on a technical and artistic level, everywhere else I found the artistic side was lacking.

But overall I really like this film and though it was a great coming of age story. I didn't think it was the masterpiece most hail it to be but still though it was a solid film.

3.5/4

[ses593]

I loved this film.  I thought it was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.  I don't really know what else to say, but I thought it was a great coming of age film.  Also, I loved the last shot where the camera freezes on Antoine's face, just fantastic.

[worm@work]

I absolutely loved this movie. The school scenes absolutely worked for me and in fact, helped me relate to the young Antoine Doinel despite being set in a foreign city at a very different time.

From my first viewing (which was at least 5-6 years ago). I remembered the movie being devastating in its conclusion and was all prepared for that. However, this time around, I realized how many moments of joy and fun the movie has. The scene where the two boys are just roaming around the city playing truant, the one in the spinning ride at a fair (?), the scene where the physical education teacher gradually loses his students one by one, the happy-and-yet-sad scene where the Doinel family goes out to watch a movie after the Balzac shrine catches fire and so on. Trite as it sounds, I love how people in the film go to the cinema to escape from the dreariness of their lives. Another shot that really stuck with me is the shot where Antoine is talking to a psychologist and directly facing the camera and of course the last scene with Antoine facing the sea and his future.

I don't really rewatch a lot of films and I already watched this twice in 3 days (once with the wonderful commentary track by Truffaut's friend Lauchenay) and see myself revisiting this several times in the future.

[roujin]

Astounding in its simplicity and staggering in its emotional power, The 400 Blows is as perfect a movie as I've ever seen.

My thoughts mostly mirrors worm's. The previous times I'd seen the film I only sort of noticed the huge emotional impact. This time, however, I really noticed how joyful the movie is.

I really should get around to watching the rest of the Antoine Doinel films. Jean-Pierre Léaud ftw!!!

[karlwinslow]

my thoughts

[Rufish]

A beautiful film. Love the montage with the zoetrope-like ride.

[oneaprilday]

Astounding in its simplicity and staggering in its emotional power, The 400 Blows is as perfect a movie as I've ever seen.

Yes, that's how I felt, roujin, and I'm not sure how much I can add here to what everyone has already said. But this film feels like a revelation to some degree - in the sense that it seems to tell me what filmmaking at its finest is.
I love how it seems to contain so many small moments - absolutely ordinary moments that should say nothing but say everything - like the scene with boy who keeps inking up his notebook pages, frantically tearing them out, smudging more, tearing them out, until he finds to his horror there are none left; or the brief scene when Daniel's mother looks in the mirror and pats and pulls at her face; or when she comes in from work and takes off her stockings; or the moment when Daniel pauses in his errand for flour and overhears the conversation between the two women about childbirth. I loved those moments - they felt utterly real and as I said, ordinary and often humorous, too, yet they added up to Daniel's world and to the development of the characters and to the themes of the film so that I was caught up into something more than ordinary, something sublime. And the film reaches this sublimity without any pretension or over-reaching - every moment, every sequence seems to me pitch perfect.

[JokerXgg]

The 400 Blows is the first movie by François Truffaut I've seen. This movie was beautifully directed and had many scenes that had strong emotional values. The way the parents and his teacher treated Antoine only made him come across as a troublemaker. In my opinion, Antoine was a regular kid who was misunderstood because the lack of love his parents showed to him.

One thing that I kept pondering while watching the movie was the "good cop bad cop" role the parents had with their son. Did anyone else notice this? When the movie started i kept thinking the dad was going to be the one showing mercy to "his son" but by the middle of the movie it was the dad who could not stand him and the mom was favoring him (maybe because of a little blackmail?)

For some reason the school sequences really didn't work for me. I know it's an important part of his life but I just didn't think they worked integrally with the rest of the film.

I believe that the school scenes add to the movie by showing how innocent Antoine is, and how he happens to be someone who gets in trouble without meaning to get in trouble. There is a scene in the movie when Antoine tries to do his homework, but happens to be disrupted by his parents, telling him it is time to eat. This shows that Antoine is willing to work hard for his education but comes across certain "barriers" that will not let him complete it.

Best Thing about the film: There were many things that I liked about this movie, yes even the freezing of Antoine's face at the end, but the thing that truly made this movie fascinating was the sountrack. The way Truffaut was able to work such beautiful music with certain scenes made the emotional experience amplify. The way the violin had the mysterious undertone in parts that were suppose to be happy or melancholy gave me goosebumps, and made me love the film even more.

This movie: 5/5

[Basil]

So I watched this film earlier this year for the first time, and while there were certain moments (puppet show, Rotor) I absolutely loved, I was a little underwhelmed, emotionally. Somewhat reluctant to give it another fair chance this late at night, I worried I would face the same disappointment again. And while it did take me nearly half of the film to get sucked in, my experience with the film this time was drastically different. Filled with joy, heartbreak, anguish, and despair, I was totally blown away by every moment.

So, briefly, now that you know that I loved it, a few of my favorite moments:

First, the opening scene at the school, when the boys pass around the pinup, and Antoine gets caught only because he took the time to draw a mustache (I think) on the girl. From ten seconds of film, we learn that 1. Antoine's got balls. 2. Antoine is a victim of circumstance; as JokerXgg put it, he "gets in trouble without meaning to get in trouble." 3. It only takes one misstep for Antoine to encounter this chain of unfortunate events. Pretty neat introduction to the character.

Again, the puppet show. Sure, it says a lot about innocence and, er, whatnot, but, honestly, I was just giddy watching the children watching the show (Akon's "Dangerous" is now stuck in my head. Y'know, "noticing you, noticing me"). Actually, I guess that's kinda the point. I wanted to be those kids, filled with wonder and joy, and, yeah, innocence.

Ok, I'm really losing my ability to say anything somewhat intelligent. I loved The Rotor scene this time, too, though it took on more significance. It was the moment that actually drew me into the film, emotionally, which it failed to do on my first viewing (lotr-sam, if you can't tell, this film is worth revisiting). By the end, I was really moved, and sorta devastated, and I can't wait to see it again. I think I'm gonna have to add some more thoughts tomorrow; sorry for what has clearly become a nearly incoherent post on a totally coherent (and awesome!) film.

[Basil]

Ok, actually, one thing I noticed this time around... Truffaut's decision to keep most of Antoine's running scene at the end silent. At first, I was kinda like, "Oh, man, I wish the awesome music would show up here". But, moments later, I grew to respect the choice a lot. Antoine is left alone to his thoughts, without any noise, so we should be too. It was nice to have a moment to sort through my thoughts and emotions without the assistance of music.

[JokerXgg]

Ok, actually, one thing I noticed this time around... Truffaut's decision to keep most of Antoine's running scene at the end silent. At first, I was kinda like, "Oh, man, I wish the awesome music would show up here". But, moments later, I grew to respect the choice a lot. Antoine is left alone to his thoughts, without any noise, so we should be too. It was nice to have a moment to sort through my thoughts and emotions without the assistance of music.

Very well said Basil, I thought exactly the same thing at first when there was no music and he was running. Even if it didn't leave us in our thoughts, at least it got us to think why the music wasn't there in the first place. Maybe that is what Truffaut wanted

[StarCarly]

Astounding in its simplicity and staggering in its emotional power, The 400 Blows is as perfect a movie as I've ever seen.

I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it. I was overwhelmed by the emotional impact it had on me. The puppet show scene in particular was flawless. There isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said in this thread, but I'm so happy I watched it.

oh, I guess one thing that I loved that hasn't been mentioned is the performance by Antoine's father. He was hilarious, but his transition to disciplinarian was believable.