Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

In my youth I have done things that I considered as wrong or unjust because of my upbringing, but films like The 400 Blows, Murmur of the Heart and Call Me By Your Name clarify that the transition to boyhood to manhood and the endless need for exploration is ordinary. Not that living ordinary is a bad thing, it just means that everyone in life has this sense of sonder that may correlate with one another, it is real, it is beautiful, and boys (especially in their teens) do weird things when they're alone.Antoine Doinel is bright and curious but his environment is against him; teachers (Institution) who criticize him without consideration, parents (Family) who are distant like a generational gap, and authorities (Law) that has no care whatsoever to the youth for order. Having a friend like Rene is a blessing because you know they'll be friends for life and they share the same ideals. It is also fun to watch them roam the surroundings for adventure.Antoine isn't necessarily a sympathetic character, he's wild, stubborn, he used an excuse that his mother died for missing a day at school, stealing his grandmother's money just because. Léaud is amazing in this because you sympathize with him. The gazes to nowhere, mannerisms and the improvisations at his age at the time is genius. Raw talent and the realness of his portrayal should be a principle for authenticity in real life or actors who are willing to grasp it.The techniques that Francois Truffaut has done here is a pleasure to experience. The comical scenes with the kid getting ink all over his notebook and the dispersion of the students one by one. These takes are well earned and hilarious. The seamless and clean long takes of Antoine running is an awe and the freeze frames (the mugshot and end frame) is incredibly striking, you get the idea that those frames were directed at the audience.This movie is about freedom, in every sense of it. Antoine never seeing the sea in his life, finally reaching it, and it is a dead end - what's next for him?

The 400 Blow Is the first film Iv'e seen from François Truffaut, and Is a quintessential piece of cinema from the French new wave. It tells the story of a rebellious young boy called Antoine. Throughout the film Antoine Is struggling to find his place In the world. His home life Is dysfunctional, he's disenfranchised with his school life and his teachers don't understand him. He's un-loved by his parents, especially by his un-caring mother, who didn't want him the first place. He's constantly skipping school and lying to his teachers and parents. After numerous Instances causing trouble, he steals a type writer from his step-fathers workplace, which proves to be the final straw. He winds up In a juvenile detention facility, where he doesn't fare any better.Watching this film I was constantly reminded of Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Which came out a couple of years after this film, and was clearly Inspired by It. It's clear to see the Influence this film has had on Cinema. It's a wonderful piece of work, despite this being Truffaut's debut, he crafts a highly accomplished film. The technical side of this film such-as the lighting and direction are expertly handled. The film also contains a wonderful screenplay, there's not a single dull moment In the film, every scene feels Important and necessary. Truffaut takes his time to flesh out every character In film. Every character feels like a fully formed three dimensional human being, In-which they're filled with regret and flaws. The film shows the angst and harsh reality of growing up and feeling un- wanted and disconnected.

Whenever the phrase 'French New Wave' gets mentioned, among the few films that someone thinks of, one of them will always be 'The 400 Blows'. This film is the one that made the 'French New Wave' movement famous all around the world. This movement revolved around the internalisation of a confluence of influences and then the execution of something unique, real and personal with the help of those influences as well as new revolutionary ideas. While watching 'The 400 Blows' one can see the dedication to realism in terms of shooting on location which can be found in Italian neo-realism, one can find a fluidity in the camera movement that is reminiscent of Hitchcock and Max Ophüls, one can find the precise use of lighting to make the shadows prominent in certain scenes similar to film-noir or German expressionism, one can also find a bit of poetic realism reminiscent of Renoir and Satyajit Ray. But François Truffaut elevates the film from being a merely experimental piece of work paying homage to his influences to a greatly touching piece of work through the tender treatment of characters, intimate exploration of themes and expressive editing techniques which make his film as personal as can be.The film's opening credits are accompanied by a montage of tracking shots in the streets of Paris with the Eiffel Tower being a constant presence. Through this creative choice, Truffaut instantly establishes the setting of the film. This maybe a personal story about the troubles of a young boy, but it is also a film about the disintegration of the French urban family structure and the deterioration of parental attention and guidance. Antoine' parents, though not being complete monsters, seem not interested in their child's life. Antoine also gets constantly victimised at school due to the overt dictatorship of the teachers. A character at one point in the film remarks about the mysteries of what goes on in Antoine's head. The tragedy is that no one tries to understand his mindset. Antoine gets burdened with limitless housework and is deprived of the freedom that he constantly seeks during the film. Although this has a Dickensian quality to it, Truffaut never undermines the fact that Antoine truly does engage in questionable activities which gradually proceed to petty criminal acts. He merely tries to view everything from Antoine's perspective to understand the reasons and the scenarios that could've driven him to such actions.The pursuit of freedom is a very important theme in the film. There are a number techniques through which Truffaut underlines this. There are constant images of bars and fences superimposed over Antoine to express his thematic confinement. The interiors of Antoine's family's apartment are made to look particularly claustrophobic which makes the cinema verite scenes on location in the streets of Paris look very refreshing. Truffaut uses appropriate music very creatively at just the right times to underline emotions. The editing is creative and was revolutionary at the time. There are long takes, rapid dissolves and some frantic cuts(there is a remarkable cut from one panning shot to another) that accentuate Truffaut's inventive directorial ideas. There is one particular scene in the film, where Antoine walks down the stairs to dump the garbage which blew me away due to the subtle and intricate details that Truffaut inserts at every moment of the scene. From the sudden appearance and disappearance of the French National Anthem on the radio in an adjacent room to the flickering light when the garbage is being dumped, the whole scene is masterfully directed.Jean-Pierre Léaud is almost pitch perfect as the young Antoine. He has the most expressive eyes. There are moments where his voice modulation, his eye movements and general mannerisms are almost absurdly convincing for a first time child actor and of course Truffaut deserves credit for getting such a layered performance out of him.'The 400 Blows' is a film which richly deserves its accolades and acclaim. It is a deeply personal film that tries to understand the world from the perspective of a young boy who has been deemed a lost cause by his family and the society. The fact that this is a loosely auto-biographical piece of work, makes the film as a whole as well the last few moments of the film extremely poignant.

One of the defining films of its director François Truffaut as well as the French New Wave movement. The latter was a loose term joining together a group of mid-century French film makers that took upon as their goal to talk about current subjects, to experiment with the film medium and to ground it in reality through real locations and modern subject matters.And keeping that in mind, it's easy to see why this film become such a cornerstone for them. It tells about a young Parisian school boy Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), who struggles in every area of his life. His parents heap both scorn and misunderstandings upon him, his school work barely passes muster, and he spends most of his days partaking in minor crimes and misdemeanours. The film doesn't really have a traditional story arc. Doinel doesn't learn that much, his circumstances don't really change. Rather the whole film has the atmosphere of the inevitable in it as Doinel's life slowly spirals deeper and deeper into ruin, culminating in the last haunting shot of him staring directly into the camera on a deserted beach, silently crying for rescue.And yes, the film has a rather gruff feel. It seems like they simply set up the camera, shot the scene and excited the room. Which of course is the ideal of New Wave, but takes some getting used to from a viewer more familiar with mainstream film media.Still, it's a beautiful film in its own way. Personally I appreciate the ideal it represents more than I appreciate it as a stand-alone film, but I'm still glad I saw it.