The 400 Blows

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The 400 Blows (French: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers to be a trouble maker.

A semi-autobiographical film, reflecting events of Truffaut's and his friend's lives, its style amounts to Truffaut's personal history of French film — most notably a scene borrowed wholesale from Jean Vigo's Zéro de conduite. It is dedicated to the man who became his spiritual father, André Bazin, who died just as the film was about to be shot.

Besides being a character study, the film is an exposé of the injustices of the treatment of juvenile offenders in France at the time.

Title

The English title is a straight translation of the French, but misses its meaning, as the French title refers to the expression "faire les quatre cents coups", which means "to raise hell". On the first American prints, subtitler and dubber Noelle Gilmore gave the film the title Wild Oats, but the distributor did not like that title, and reverted it to The 400 Blows, which led some to think the film covered the topic of corporal punishment.

Synopsis

Antoine was born while his mother was unmarried. Afterwards she married an older man to "give him a name." She is unhappy in her married life and resents Antoine because of this. The family is financially insecure, and Antoine is poorly dressed and poorly fed, and sleeps in a sleeping bag (which he prefers because "at least it's warm") on a cot crammed next to the back entrance to the apartment. Since he sleeps in a through-way, and does not have his own room, it suggests that both his mother and his stepfather consider him an unwanted burden.

He engages in a series of childish pranks, usually at the instigation of his schoolmates, and bears the blame for each of them. Eventually, at the urging of his friend René, he pilfers a typewriter from his father's workplace. After he and René find that it cannot be pawned, he attempts to return it. When he is apprehended by the concierge, his stepfather turns him in to the police.

After his arrest, his stepfather effectively surrenders control over him to the investigating magistrate, saying that he is incorrigible, leaving him to the mercy of the French judicial system. Antoine is put in a detention center, and then a work camp.

His mother makes no plea for leniency, rather she agrees to his commitment to the work camp. During his interrogation at the detention center it comes out that, instead of being raised with his mother and stepfather, he has usually been shuffled off to his other relatives.

Antoine eventually escapes and runs towards the sea. The film ends as Antoine, kicking the surf at shoreline, turns and looks at the camera to which the frame famously freezes on his face as his gaze looks into the audience.

Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud: Antoine Doinel
Claire Maurier: Gilberte Doinel, the mother
Albert Rémy: Julien Doinel
Guy Decomble: The French Teacher (Sourpuss)
Patrick Auffay: René Bigey
Georges Flamant: Monsieur Bigey
Pierre Repp: The English Teacher
The Children: Daniel Couturier, François Nocher, Richard Kanayan, Renaud Fontanarosa, Michel Girard, Henry Moati, Bernard Abbou, Jean-François Bergouignan, Michel Lesignor;
Luc Andrieux, Robert Beauvais, Bouchon, Christian Brocard, Yvonne Claudie, Marius Laurey, Claude Mansard, Jacques Monod, Henri Virlojeux.

Crew

Photography by Henri Decaë
Camera: Jean Rabier, asst.: Alain Levent, stills: André Dino
Editing by Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Music by Jean Constantin
Sound by Jean-Claude Marchetti with Jean Labussière
Set design by Bernard Evein
Adaptation and Dialogue by Marcel Moussy
Direction and Screenplay by François Truffaut
Direction assisted by Philippe de Broca, Alain Jeannel, Francis Cognany, and Robert Bober
Production Supervision by Jean Lavie with Robert Lachenay

Awards

The film was widely acclaimed, winning numerous awards, including the Best Director award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, the Critics Award of the 1959 New York Film Critics' Circle and the Best European Film Award at 1960's Bodil Awards. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 32nd Academy Awards.

Legacy

Truffaut made four other films with Léaud depicting Antoine at later stages of his life. He meets his first love, Colette, in Antoine and Colette, which was Truffaut's contribution to the 1962 anthology Love at Twenty. He falls in love with Christine Darbon (Claude Jade) in Stolen Kisses. He marries Christine in Bed and Board, but the couple have separated in Love on the Run.

Notes

External links

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 15:19:12 PST (GMT -0800)
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