Film: Les Quatre Cents Coups
Director: François Truffaut
Country: France
Released: May 1959
Runtime: 99 minutes
Genre: Drama
Studio: Cocinor
Influenced: Jacques Rivette, Agnès Varda, Eric Rohmer, Ken Loach, Wes Anderson, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Some films are a revelation the first time you see them. 400 Blows was one such movie for me. Though the film is deeply autobiographical, it's also a universal meditation on childhood and rebellion. It’s also a criticism of the way parents can make children feel guilty for simply being children. It's such an intimate film, to the extent that Truffaut shot it with his childhood friend Robert Lachenay as an assistant. They grew up together near Montmartre as school friends, often playing truant and causing havoc in class, and we are transported back to this school environment straight after the opening scenes of the Eiffel Tower. At the start of the film, Truffaut pays his respects to renowned French film critic André Bazin, who died on the first day of filming of 400 Blows. Bazin opened many doors for Truffaut in the world of French film.
Jean-Pierre Léaud's natural charm and cheekiness in the role of Antoine Doinel caused Truffaut to rethink the film, putting him at the heart of the story. Like Doinel, Truffaut himself was not a star pupil and likewise had a beautiful mother (played by Claire Maurier in the film) who didn't reciprocate his love. As portrayed in the movie, his parents would often go away at weekends on hiking trips and leave him to his own devices. The phrase, "faire les 400 coups" translates more or less as "to run riot". For someone so young, Léaud's acting is superb, especially in the scene where he’s interviewed by the psychologist, made even more engaging by Truffaut's clever cuts and dissolves. This novel approach is one of the film’s many innovations, making it feel fresh and exciting to watch even now.
Truffaut's direction is superb, capturing the essence of post-war Paris in stunning black and white cinematography. The film's realism is heightened by the use of handheld cameras, which provide a sense of intimacy and immediacy to the audience. It's almost like a documentary of street life in Paris, and some of the school scenes are a loving tribute to Jean Vigo's Zéro de Conduite. Like many of the films of the French nouvelle vague, 400 Blows was filmed without sound to speed up production and then the sound would be post-synchronised in the studio. At times the images and sound are marginally out of sync.
Truffaut appears in the rotor spinning scene, a nod to one of his heroes Hitchcock, and he also gave cameos to various other emerging French directors, including Godard. The film's story is simple but deeply moving. Antoine is a troubled boy who is neglected by his parents, and his rebellion against authority and his search for meaning and love make him sympathetic and relatable. Like Truffaut, Doinel is a sensitive soul and great lover of Balzac. Truffaut's script is also a masterclass, written in collaboration with Marcel Moussy, and the film is full of iconic scenes like Antoine blowing bubblegum at the cinema. I find the ending, filmed near Honfleur, where Antoine escapes from the youth detention centre and discovers the sea for the first time so moving, enhanced by the music of Jean Constantin.
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