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The 400 Blows
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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 Cents 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.
A semi-autobiographical film, reflecting events of Truffaut's and his friend's lives, its style amounts to Truffaut's personal 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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The English title is a straight translation of the French, but misses its meaning, as the French title refers to the expression "faire les quatre cents coups", which means "to raise hell". On the first American prints, subtitler and dubber Noelle Gilmore gave the film the title Wild Oats, but the distributor did not like that title, and reverted it to The 400 Blows, which led some to think the film covered the topic of corporal punishment.[1]
Antoine was born while his mother was unmarried. 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. Since he sleeps in a through-way, and does not have his own room, it suggests that both his mother and his stepfather 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 urging 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 concierge, his stepfather turns him in to the police.
After his arrest, his stepfather 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 stepfather, he has usually been shuffled off to his other relatives.
Antoine eventually escapes and runs towards the sea. The film ends on a freeze frame where Antoine is on a beach with his feet in the surf, looking back to the shore.
- 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.
- 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
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 Awards. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 32nd Academy Awards.
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.
- ^ Criterion Collection DVD of Grand Illusion, see the section on press notes.
- The 400 Blows at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Annette Insdorf
- Criterion Collection essay by Kent Jones for "Antoine and Colette"
- Review by Roger Ebert
- Review of Criterion DVD of film
- Senses of Cinema essay
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| The 400 Blows | Antoine and Colette | Stolen Kisses | Bed and Board | Love on the Run |
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| 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 | L'Agence Magique • Breathless • The Little Thief • Belle Époque |