The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) (1959)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Francois Truffaut

Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Guy Decomble, Patrick Auffay

From: Les Films du Carrosse/Sedif Productions

On Christmas night I'll be making a special post where I'll catch up on what I haven't posted here as of yet; until then, there will be another post in a few hours plus one on Christmas Eve. For now: 

Last night seemed like the time to see a cinema classic, something I figured would receive a high rating from me. The fact that a scene established part of the time period as Christmas time was a coincidence as this was unknown by me beforehand. It has the highest possible rating as The 400 Blows was as enthralling and affecting as I had heard.

It is a semi-autobiographical look at Francois Truffaut's own childhood. For certain I know he was often truant from school and loved going to the cinema; life at home wasn't great either. Apparently it was even worse in real life than what lead character Antoine Doniel experienced... at least his parents didn't seem to constantly hate him and at times did show they cared about their only child. That said, the parents have a dysfunctional marriage so that had to be an underlying cause of his struggles at school. Hopefully IRL Truffaut did not attempt to steal his dad's typewriter from work or plagiarized a famous French author from the past, Honore de Balzac... what a giggle-worthy name. It's readily apparent Francois did not think too highly when it came to any of his "sourpuss" school teachers.

The film is not excellent just for it kicking off the French New Wave movement or the performances of all the main characters (Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine being the most noteworthy)-it was how well the movie was filmed-making the life of Doniel seem so natural and real as he goes in and out of the buildings of Paris-making some foolish decisions along the way-and in the third act, another location. In addition, it has an excellent music score from Jean Constantin, fitting the footage perfectly. It's not a heartwarming tale for this holiday season but it should be viewed at anytime by any serious film fans.

As of now, the only Truffaut I have viewed is this and Jules & Jim, which was very good. For certain I'll do a deep dive on more of his work in the future, including the other films involving Antoine Doniel. Plus, I do not love Close Encounters of the Third Kind like most others do (am I suppose to find the lead's mental breakdown over his alien encounter turned obsession to be a good thing or hilarious?) but at least Truffaut and Bob Balaban were quite the duo with their characters.