"Childhood is rough, particularly if you are a tormented little Parisian boy with a penchant for writing on walls and stealing typewriters. François Truffaut's semi-autobiographical film The 400 Blows (1959)-which pulls its title from the French idiom faire les quatre cents coups, meaning something like "to raise hell"-takes an episodic approach that eschews elaborate narrative in favor of studying its child protagonist. Antoine's (Jean-Pierre Léaud) small world falls apart as he lies and runs from every adult's (often unjust) rules and expectations."
"Kids reliably know more than they let on, and Antoine's no different; his big feelings are clearly driven by the violence, anger, and infidelity of his parents' world. If you haven't seen The 400 Blows, you've heard of it-the film placed Truffaut at the crest of the French New Wave, and its realist perspective has inspired many coming-of-age films since."
The 400 Blows is a semi-autobiographical 1959 film that uses an episodic, realist approach to study a young Parisian boy named Antoine. Antoine responds to unjust adult rules by lying, running, and stealing, and his behavior is shaped by parental violence, anger, and infidelity. The narrative follows his descent into youth detention and culminates in an escape that reads as transcendent. The film captures childhood feelings of confusion, alienation, and frustration with nowhere to place them. Jean Constantin's silvery, haunting score reinforces the film's childlike tone and enduring emotional resonance.
Read at Portland Mercury
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]