The 400 Blows (1959) | The Film Index

Film Record

The 400 Blows

Country: France
Release: 3 JUN 1959
Runtime: 99 min
Original Language: French

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French Title: Les 400 coups

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Why It's Here

This film is one of the defining opening works of the French New Wave. François Truffaut shatters the artificiality of the “Tradition of Quality” studio films by taking the camera into the real streets of Paris. It is an essential study in semi-autobiographical filmmaking and in the liberation of the camera through location shooting and visual immediacy.

What to Watch For: The final freeze frame, which suspends Antoine between escape and uncertainty rather than delivering clean narrative closure. Also the fluid camera movement, especially the carnival centrifuge shot and the long tracking passages, which turn mobility itself into feeling.

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