The 400 Blows.

Review #1400: The 400 Blows.

Cast: 
Jean-Pierre Léaud (Antoine Doinel), Albert Rémy (Julien Doinel), Claire Maurier (Gilberte Doinel), Guy Decomble (Sourpuss), Patrick Auffay (René Bigey), Georges Flamant (Monsieur Bigey), Pierre Repp (English teacher), Daniel Couturier (Betrand Mauricet), and Luc Andrieux (Le professeur de gym) Directed by François Truffaut.

Review: 
“I am often asked at what point in my love affair with films I began to want to be a director or a critic. Truthfully, I don't know. All I know is that I wanted to get closer and closer to films.”

There are numerous directors that can cited as notable or iconic in their own right around the world in many genres and styles. Francois Truffaut was a lover of film who wanted to break from the traditions of quality in film, particularly in his native France. He had an unsatisfying home life as a child, growing up primarily with his grandmother for the first ten years of his life, and he never met his biological father. Living with his mother and adopted father was not particularly satisfying, since she found him a distraction and he was often left alone on weekends, which led to him trying to get out of the house as often as possible that worked into a love for cinema. Some of his experiences in young life are reflected in this film, such as a stolen typewriter and his childhood friend Robert Lachenay also served as an inspiration for the film while working as an assistant to this and several future films. Although he found himself expelled from numerous schools, he aspired to become self-taught in cinema and books, doing the former three times a day and the latter three times a week, with some films he saw over ten times (before his death he would claim to have seen nearly three thousand films). He formed his own cinema club when he was 16 after time spent with film clubs all around Paris, with the biggest inspiration being the Cinémathèque Française, one of the largest archives of film documents and objects in the world that has offered screenings of films all over the world daily that has endured in Paris since 1936. André Bazin was a key figure in Truffaut's path from situations such as being in the French Army to journalism, since Bazin was a co-founder of Cahiers du cinema, which has endured in publication for six decades with several noted writers that would become filmmakers in their own right, including ones belonging to the French New Wave like Truffaut, who served as writer and eventual editor for the magazine, where he was once called "The Gravedigger of French Cinema", and he would later say that writing about films helped him understand them better in terms of exercising one's intellect. The French New Wave (described by Truffaut once as not so much a movement or a group but as a quality) found inspiration through blending Italian neorealism and classical Hollywood with directors like Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock (who Truffaut would famously do an interview with in 1962 that was published into a book in 1966), who he and others applauded as auteurs that prevailed over the traditional quality from directors who seemed to follow the script as a stager without authority or flexibility. His yearning to make films led to short films in 1955 with A Visit and The Mischief Makers (1957). These, along with The 400 Blows (known as France as Les Quatre Cents Coups, which refers to an expression that involves living a wild life) would be made on modest budgets. Truffaut planned to film a bunch of sketches that involved childhood as a series of short films, which was the basis of his second short film Les Mistons. One of those ideas for a sketch would evolve into a film (the sketch in question involved the main character playing hooky from school and making up the excuse of his mother dying to try and get out of trouble). In a career cut short by his death from a brain tumor at the age of 52, he would make over twenty films as a director (while also acting in a few films as well), with notable productions of his being Fahrenheit 451 (1966; Truffaut's first film in color and only non-French production), Day for Night (1973, winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film) and The Last Metro (1980).

Truffaut once predicted that films would become "more personal than autobiography...Tomorrow's film will be an act of love." He certainly seems to have been proven correct in his own right. What is there really to say about a film like this? How many directors can have a debut as tremendously fascinating as this one proves to be with how everything sticks together in realism with simplicity for a director making a very personal and very effective film that seems quite distinct from one could expect from a coming-of-age film. For one thing, most of the film was shot without sound, with dubbing being done later (the notable exception being the psychologist scene). The film was done in DyaliScope (a widescreen process similar to CinemaScope), with Henri Decaë serving as cinematographer (being the highest-paid person for the film), who does an excellent job with capturing a stark gorgeous look that is faithful to the film's purpose of naturalism without betraying it. The key to the power of this film is its main performance from 14-year old Léaud, who Truffaut picked after auditioning hundreds of children, finding similar traits to Truffaut himself in terms of "a certain suffering with regard to the family." He proves a worthy presence to follow with, filled with plenty of unruly conviction that is compelling to watch in the ups and downs that come from growing up. The misunderstandings that come from watching him is one we can see in ourselves in some way, particularly in that longing that comes out in the question sequence near the end, done with the actor having just an idea of what questions would be asked and what the answers would be that matched the storyline - in other words, he improvises quite well for is needed. The two would collaborate together on six further films together, with four of them (one of them being a short) featuring the character of Antoine in a two decade span. The rest of the cast keep up with him just as well, such as a rough Decomble (as to expect from a tough teacher) with Rémy and Maurier proving wonderfully morose when it comes to looking at these parents beyond initial conclusions about an unruly child and the parents that made said kid. I don't think there is a single person who grew up without feeling misunderstood once, whether by their parent(s) or their teachers or even people they believe are their friends. It doesn't end in adulthood either, depending on one's outlook on people, I suppose. Freedom doesn't really come from standing on a beach but in finding people to love. But in any case, this is a wonderfully crafted look upon adolescence in the eyes of stark realism and honesty that resonate now more than ever as a fascinating film for world cinema and for Truffaut as a whole.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.