The 400 Blows

Antoine Doinel is a young school kid who is trying to find his way in the world. In this French New Wave film, we follow Antoine’s mischievous childhood while he is trying to find meaning in his life. Throughout the film, Antoine often finds himself getting into trouble just for the fun of it. He is harshly disciplined at home and usually gets in trouble at school as well. After skipping school and using his mother’s death as an excuse even though she didn’t actually die, Antoine runs away to his friend Rene’s house. The mise en scene in this film had a very old feel to it as it was made in 1959. The director, Francois Truffaut did a wonderful job on the film. Trauffaut is considered to have started the French New Wave movement which focuses heavily on using long takes, jump-cuts, on location shooting, natural lighting, and direct sound recording. You can tell that throughout The 400 Blows, these types of shots are used a lot. Especially in the last scene of the film when Antoine runs away from the youth detention center, there is a very long shot of him running to the water on the beach. The score used in this scene was very nice as well. The ending shot when the camera zooms in and then freeze frames is considered a very famous part of the film since it hadn’t really been done before. It was very symbolic as well because Antoine talks about seeing the sea earlier in the film and finally gets what he wanted by the end. But when he gets there, it seems like he doesn’t know what to do next or what his future may hold. Overall, I thought it was a great film.