#5 The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)

#5 The 400 Blows

1959 // France // François Truffaut

Criterion Collection (LINK) / Letterboxd (LINK)

THE 400 BLOWS was premiered at Cannes Film Festival 60 years ago, announcing the complete transformation of François Truffaut from a film critic to a film director. It’s also the first screen appearance of the legendary French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, who was only 14 years old during film production. Most importantly, it’s also the landmark film of the French New Wave.

THE 400 BLOWS has occupied a special place in my heart ever since I have watched it a decade ago, it introduces me to the ‘world cinema’, a field outside my usual treat of Hollywood blockbusters, and got me hooked from watching films in a more ‘serious’ approach. It is the first film which I have an instinctive feeling that the director is speaking to me through the story, the images, the music and the characters. It’s also one of the first few releases from the Criterion Collection I bought, alongside with Akira Kurosawa. Since then it’s my most-rewatched film, yet paradoxically my last revisit has been longer than 5 years ago, before the time I began logging films in Letterboxd.

THE 400 BLOWS was used to be in my top 10 favorite films of all time but was gradually pushed back by more and more newly-discovered films I watch and fall in love with. I have the fear of liking it less this time of rewatch and is even hesitant to write about it. My immediate reaction after the film ends, by concluding with the freeze-frame of the close-up of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) looking directly to the camera, is how much I still cherish the genuine and empathetic approach taken by the filmmaker. It may look ‘dated’ since so many films have taken a similar ‘cinema verite’ style before and since then, similarly to BICYCLE THIEVES (1948), one could easily dismiss those films as relics of black-and-white melodrama.

THE 400 BLOWS is ‘yet another’ coming-of-age story about a boy, misunderstood by his parents (Claire Maurier as Madame Doinel, Albert Rémy as Monsieur Doinel, the stepfather) and teacher (Guy Decomble) of entrenched attitude. There’s a beautiful friendship depicted between Antoine and René (Patrick Auffay), Antoine’s best friend in class who’s similarly neglected by his own parents but compensated by a more materialistic living environment. In this film everyone makes mistake and retrospectively wrong decisions, Antoine lies and steals his father’s typewriter for money, Madame Doinel has an extra-marital affair, Monsieur Doinel is a caring stepfather but is unavoidably distancing from Antoine. But hardly one would call any of them an antagonist, in Truffaut’s script, the autobiographical elements are nonetheless apparent. But it avoids blaming one particular person, or one could say it exams all of the characters, including his own surrogate Antoine, on equivalent accountability.

I love how Truffaut balances the joyful and sorrow moments. The attentive reaction of children during a puppet show, the mischief of a class of students led by a gym teacher jogging in the street of Paris gradually flees in groups, or the Doinel family enjoying a happy ride back home after visiting the cinema, THE 400 BLOWS reminds us how simplistic happiness could be, and how cherish it is once it is vaporized. When Antoine is caught stealing, his father reports him to the police, he is then sent to a detention school where physical punishment and isolation are utilized to discipline the delinquents. He flees and runs to a beach, finally looking back at us when the frame freezes.

THE 400 BLOWS is a downward spiral of a misguided child constantly being judged for his action by the inconsistent adults and the uncaring institutions. I still wonder why this particular film ‘speaks’ to me, I’ve never been in a situation similar to Antoine nor I have any problem with school or family. I guess it’s the truthfulness and the empathy, and the realization of a possibility that Antoine would grow up into Truffaut who falls in love with cinema and makes THE 400 BLOWS, that thought melts my heart, and I hope it does the same to you.

Film’s Trailer