The 400 Blows

Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows is the kind of film I wish I could have seen when it first came out. It has all those elements that I crave in a film today. It had a compelling story and protagonist (played by the excellent Jean-Pierre Leaud), it has amazing shots and narrative technique. I have gone to over 80 movies a year hoping to find films of this quality and more often I find them on my dvd player than in the cinema. Which makes me long for classics of today and to have a venue where I can see the classics of the past on the big screen. Sadly with rare exception my local indie theater prefers 70s and 80s cult classics to the critical classics of the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Antoine Doinell is a school boy in early adolescence who lives with his mother and step-father. They live in a small apartment and seem to be barely scraping by. Antoine is one of those kids who school ultimately is not for (but in modern times would be doped up with drugs and called an ADD child most likely). Branded a perpetual trouble maker by his parents and teachers, he falls comfortably into that role finding it easier to live up to the preconceived notion than to fight it.

The film follows Antoine as he skips school or occasionally commits petty crimes and deals with his difficult family life at home. As a result we get to see a fascinatingly shot world with scenes that are at times tragic and at other comedic and a largely flawless transition between the two. And although it moves forward with character progression and the tale becomes increasingly sad for in truth Antoine isn't really a bad kid, I was still delighted by everything.

And bravo to Truffaut for his final scene which ends on such a note of ambiguity that one craves to follow Antoine's story into a sequel rather than is usually forced on you by obvious set ups as in many an action movie over the past few years. But at the same time one can also satisfactorily never hear of Antoine again and that would have its own quiet grace to it as well.

It is definitely a film worth seeing. Beyond its occasionally groundbreaking cinematic additions or its well shot scenes, it is a genuinely entertaining story carried by some great performances.