The 400 Blows
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| The 400 Blows | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | François Truffaut |
| Produced by | François Truffaut |
| Written by | François Truffaut Marcel Moussy |
| Starring | Jean-Pierre Léaud Claire Maurier Albert Rémy Guy Decomble |
| Music by | Jean Constantin |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Distributed by | Cocinor |
| Release date(s) |  May 4, 1959 November 16, 1959 |
| Running time | 99 min |
| Language | French |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The 400 Blows (French: Les Quatre Cent Coups) is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers to be a trouble maker. The title of the film is a French idiomatic expression which means roughly "raising hell". Legend has it the young Weinstein brothers attended the film believing it to be racy European fare. They were so moved by the experience it led to a deep and enduring love of film and eventually to their founding Miramax Films.
The story is autobiographical, reflecting many of the events of Truffaut's own life. Its style amounts to an autobiographical history of French film, most notably a scene borrowed wholesale from Jean Vigo's Zéro de conduite. It is dedicated to the man who became his spiritual father, André Bazin, who died just as the film was about to be shot.
Besides being a character study, the film is an exposé of the injustices of the treatment of juvenile offenders in France at the time.
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[edit] Synopsis
Antoine was born while his mother was unmarried (as is revealed later in the film). Afterwards she married an older man to "give him a name." She is unhappy in her married life and resents Antoine because of this. The family is financially insecure, and Antoine is poorly dressed and poorly fed, and sleeps in a sleeping bag (which he prefers because "at least it's warm") on a cot crammed next to the back entrance to the apartment. Both his mother and his step-father consider him an unwanted burden.
He engages in a series of childish pranks, usually at the instigation of his schoolmates, and bears the blame for each of them. Eventually, at the instigation of his friend René, he pilfers a typewriter from his father's workplace. After he and René find that it cannot be pawned, he attempts to return it. When he is apprehended by the night-watchman (or, perhaps, the concierge) his step-father turns him in to the police.
After his arrest his mother effectively surrenders control over him to the investigating magistrate, saying that he is incorrigible, leaving him to the mercy of the French judicial system. Antoine is put in a detention center, and then a work camp.
His mother makes no plea for leniency, rather she agrees to his commitment to the work camp. During his interrogation at the detention center it comes out that, instead of being raised with his mother and step-father, he has usually been shuffled off to his other relatives.
Antoine eventually escapes and runs towards the sea. The film ends on the famous freeze-frame where Antoine is on a beach with his feet in the surf, looking back to the shore, with no place left to run. He had never seen the sea before.
[edit] Cast
- Jean-Pierre Léaud: Antoine Doinel
- Claire Maurier: Gilberte Doinel, the mother
- Albert Rémy: Julien Doinel
- Guy Decomble: The French Teacher (Sourpuss)
- Patrick Auffay: René Bigey
- Georges Flamant: Monsieur Bigey
- Pierre Repp: The English Teacher
- The Children: Daniel Couturier, François Nocher, Richard Kanayan, Renaud Fontanarosa, Michel Girard, Henry Moati, Bernard Abbou, Jean-François Bergouignan, Michel Lesignor;
- Avec Luc Andrieux, Robert Beauvais, Bouchon, Christian Brocard, Yvonne Claudie, Marius Laurey, Claude Mansard, Jacques Monod, Henri Virlojeux.
[edit] Crew
- Photography by Henri Decaë
- Camera: Jean Rabier, asst.: Alain Levent, stills: André Dino
- Editing by Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
- Music by Jean Constantin
- Sound by Jean-Claude Marchetti with Jean Labussière
- Set design by Bernard Evein
- Adaptation and Dialogue by Marcel Moussy
- Direction and Screenplay by François Truffaut
- Direction assisted by Philippe de Broca, Alain Jeannel, Francis Cognany, and Robert Bober
- Production Supervision by Jean Lavie with Robert Lachenay
Dedicated to the memory of André Bazin.
[edit] Awards
The film was widely acclaimed, winning numerous awards, including the Best Director award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, the Critics Award of the 1959 New York Film Critics' Circle and the Best European Film Award at 1960's Bodil Award. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 1959 Academy Awards, and lost to Pillow Talk.
[edit] Antoine Doinel cycle
Truffaut made four other films with Léaud depicting Antoine at later stages of his life. He meets his first love, Colette, in Antoine and Colette, which was Truffaut's contribution to the 1962 anthology Love at Twenty. He falls in love with Christine Darbon (Claude Jade) in Stolen Kisses, he marries Christine in Bed and Board, but the couple have separated in Love on the Run.
[edit] External links
- The 400 Blows at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Annette Insdorf
- Review by Roger Ebert
- Review of Criterion DVD of film
- Senses of Cinema essay
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The Adventures of Antoine Doinel by François Truffaut |
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The 400 Blows | Antoine and Colette | Stolen Kisses | Bed and Board | Love on the Run |
| The Films of François Truffaut | |
|---|---|
| 1950s | Une Visite • Les Mistons • Une Histoire d'eau • The 400 Blows |
| 1960s | Shoot the Piano Player • Jules and Jim • Antoine and Colette • The Soft Skin • Fahrenheit 451 • The Bride Wore Black • Stolen Kisses • Mississippi Mermaid |
| 1970s | The Wild Child • Bed and Board • Two English Girls • Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me • Day for Night • The Story of Adele H. • Small Change • The Man Who Loved Women • The Green Room • Love on the Run |
| 1980s | The Last Metro • The Woman Next Door • Confidentially Yours |
| Screenplay only | Breathless • The Little Thief • Belle Époque (miniseries) |
