After they steal an alarm clock from a ladies’ room, it starts ringing as they take off down the street. Truffaut also included a number of friends (fellow directors) in bit or background parts, including: himself and Philippe De Broca in the funfair scene; Jacques Demy as a policeman; Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Paul Belmondo as overheard voices (Belmondo's in the print works scene). "[9] This includes how both Antoine and Truffaut "found a substitute home in the movie theater" and both did not know their biological fathers. While most articles about movies place emphasis largely on narrative style and acting (and sometimes music), you have gone further by elaborating on the director's technique, which an indispensable part of any film. It will be interesting to track those films down. With film critic Alexandre Astruc’s idea of the “Camera Stylo” (Camera Pen), New Wave directors developed the auteur theory. Truffaut captures the realities of childhood, both his and ours. LOL Follow this link please and see the Hubnuggets. This movie is one of the most touching I've seen, foreign and non-foreign. Antoine looking from the inside of a van as it is taking him away from Paris, Rene going away without being able to talk to Antoine and the last meeting between Antoine and his mother shown in the film. Art narrative films are concerned more with reaction than action (Bordwell 776). The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) August 17, 2014 / micabinns. The 400 Blows, French Les Quatre Cents Coups, French film drama, released in 1959, that defined the New Wave cinema movement created by young French directors in the late 1950s and ’60s. Certain scenes in The 400 Blows seem to have no other purpose than to show characters as they really are. Such instances add an element of realism to The 400 Blows, as if a documentary camera happened to catch ordinary people in everyday situations. Additionally they could use a freeze frame to emphasise a single moment, much like the famous final shot of The 400 Blows. Written by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy, the film is about Antoine Doinel, a misunderstood adolescent in Paris who struggles with his parents and teachers due to his rebellious behavior. [18], The festival poster for the 71st Venice International Film Festival paid tribute to the film as it featured the character of Antoine Doinel portrayed by Jean-Pierre Léaud. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. It was in 1959 that Francois Truffaut kickstarted the nouvelle vague with his debut feature, The 400 Blows. Mainly the last part reminds me of Hugo. I wonder if anybody, while watching this movie, was reminded of Victor Hugo's novels at some points. A seminal French New Wave film that offers an honest, sympathetic, and wholly heartbreaking observation of adolescence without trite nostalgia. 1959. Even as they began directing films, they continued writing as critics. In that respect, the French New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. In 1959, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows won him the award for best director at the Cannes Film Festival. The title 400 blows might be thought of covering the topic of corporal punishment of the domestic variety, but this film is really about one bad kid's (Antoine) tumble into a life reminiscent of hell and his desperate attempts of ascending back into a life of 'heaven'. [7], Besides being a character study, the film is an exposé of the injustices of the treatment of juvenile offenders in France at the time. The 400 Blows plot is about a teenage boy who continually finds himself in trouble and making poor decisions which ultimately lands him in a juvenile detention center. An important aspect of film is storytelling. Browland (author) from Georgia on February 10, 2012: Cinemafan, thanks for the compliment. French New Wave. Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) are two films, which despite major disparities, would go on to exemplify integral characteristics of the movement in the following years. A director became the “author” of a film, using the camera as a “pen” to tell the story. Children break away in small groups until there are only two students following the oblivious jogging instructor. Cinema, in the shape of this new generation of filmmakers, thus eame asso iated with a Zyouth [ phenomenon. Antoine is placed in an observation center for troubled youths near the seashore (as his mother wished). Above nearly all else, the French New Wave was about filming the truth. While a traditional Hollywood chase scene would have quick cuts between the escapee and the pursuer, Truffaut has a long uninterrupted shot of Antoine running (lasting seventy-five seconds), which demonstrates André Bazin’s notion that “some actions need to be represented in real time in order to be dramatically effective” (Fabe 130-1). While playing football with the other boys one day, Antoine escapes under a fence and runs away to the ocean, which he has always wanted to see. His grandly successful debut 400 Blows had a total four million admissions in France. You are welcome and it was a pleasure for me too. :). We see amazing tracking shots in Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) in the ending scene when the boy is running out onto the beach towards the ocean. Often mistakenly credited as the first film of the French New Wave, The 400 Blows managed to inaugurate many of the characteristics closely associated with that style. Ed. Largely autobiographical, it recounts the story of an adolescent boy “raising hell” (which explains the idiomatic French title Les Quatre Cents Coups) (Fabe 125). ... As far as the style of the French New Wave … Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. [8], According to Annette Insdorf writing for the Criterion Collection, the film is "rooted in Truffaut’s childhood. [citation needed], The semi-autobiographical film reflects events of Truffaut's and his friends' lives. My Life to Live (Vivre sa vie) (1962) Vivre Sa Vie - Trailer. French New Wave – The 400 Blows. [5] It ranked 13th in the directors' poll on the same list. It was written and directed by the auteur, Francois Truffaut.It stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel, a young boy that has a troubled home life that carries over to other aspects of his life. thought the film covered the topic of corporal punishment. Self-reflexivity is another quality of French New Wave films. However this soon changed and after new techniques were developed to revolutionize cinema the French New Wave came along and took them to an entire new depth. The 400 Blows. When Antoine lovingly recalls his favorite passage from Balzac for a school essay, he is expelled for plagiarism. DVD. I wonder what has been written about that. A snapshot of how French New Wave influenced contemporary film. Apr 13, 2012 - Directed by François Truffaut. Filmed on location in Paris and Honfleur, it is the first in a series of five films in which Léaud plays the semi-autobiographical character. Camera effects constantly bring the audience back to the realization that The 400 Blows is a film. With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble. The 400 Blows (French: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French New Wave drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut. Antoine and his parents go to see Jacques Rivette’s Paris Nous Appartient (Paris Belongs To Us) (Wiegand 59-60). Unfortunately for Antoine, all his attempts to express himself in some literary fashion or another (with the shrine, the essay, and the typewriter) only lead to punishment. The film is amazing to me because it speaks on behalf of a zeitgeist of listlessness in a way that retains youthful humor and … The 400 Blows (1959), François Truffaut (Screening on Wednesday, 7 – 9 pm, Rocky/Mathey Theater) Among the ranks of “French Movies You Say You’ve Seen but Haven’t,” one of Princeton Film Society’s series this semester, François Truffaut’s 1959 drama The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) is one of the most prototypical.For someone looking to explore the French New Wave … The 400 Blows", "The 100 greatest foreign-language films", "Venice Film Fest Unveils Poster for 71st Edition", "Venice Film Festival 2014: What we know so far", New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_400_Blows&oldid=1008814326, Films with screenplays by François Truffaut, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2018, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from December 2018, Articles that may contain original research from December 2018, All articles that may contain original research, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Patrick Auffay as René Bigey, Antoine's best friend, Robert Beauvais as director of the school, This page was last edited on 25 February 2021, at 05:06. There is no clear-cut resolution—does Antoine make it out on his own, or is he brought back to the detention center like the other teenage escapee? [16], The film was ranked #29 in Empire magazine's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. Other elements of self-reflexive film are in-jokes and references to film. The 400 Blows is a French New Wave film released in 1959. New Wave developed from the theory that film could be as expressive an art form as poetry or literature. It's nice to hear from other movie buffs. A psychologist at the center probes reasons for Antoine's unhappiness, which the youth reveals in a fragmented series of monologues. Another delightful scene occurs with a high-angle overhead shot of the schoolchildren following their gym teacher down the Paris streets. Again, the scene has no bearing on the overall plot, but instead it “functions thematically as a visual riff on the subject of childhood rebellion against adult regimentation” (Fabe 129). Definitely check out the film, it's worth it! I have just started writing articles on classic cinema. French New Wave & The 400 Blows The emergence of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) was situated at a time of radical historical transition during the later Post World War II period when the concerns of many French filmmakers differed sharply from traditional French cinema. Both titles received unexpected international success and were praised for their innovate filmmaking techniques. The 400 Blows received numerous awards and nominations, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director, the OCIC Award, and a Palme d'Or nomination in 1959, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1960. As Chris Wiegand explains, "The pictures of the Cahiers critics became films about films, full of the sorts of in-jokes and cinematic references that you would expect from a school of critics/film-makers who scoured their favourite films like magpies" (22). Themes. The film, shot in DyaliScope, stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. Wiegand, Chris. While the “Hollywood protagonist speeds directly toward the target; lacking a goal, the art-film character slides passively from one situation to another” (Bordwell 776). It was the first film in François Truffaut ’s acclaimed Antoine Doinel series, which followed a character widely considered to be the director’s alter ego. Not only is The 400 Blows deeply personal for Truffaut, a common element of many New Wave films, but it also displays many of the cinematic qualities of the film movement, such as the mix of realistic and artistic and the self-reflexivity. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2005. 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