Directed by Francois Truffaut
Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Albert Remy and Claire Maurier
Here's yet another film-maker that I'm at least mildly aware of. This time, it's from a book that my late brother was nice enough to bring home for me from his college library. Knowing that I had a massive hard-on for Alfred Hitchcock, he picked out Hitchcock/Truffaut, an exhaustive interview conducted by Francois Truffaut and diving headlong into the long career of Mr. Hitchcock. I read the whole thing but wore out the pages dealing with Psycho, a chapter that still qualifies as some of the most insightful stuff I've ever read in the world of cinema study.
At the time, I knew that Truffaut was a pretty influential film critic but had no clue that the guy (or didn't recall from reading it in seventh grade) was actually a burgeoning director in his own right when the interview was done. In fact, he has a long, storied filmography, and is one of the very few people to make the successful leap from the guy nitpicking the stuff on the screen to the guy making the stuff to be nitpicked. Folks, it's sentences like that last one which serve as definitive evidence as to why I was able to procure something like 10 subscribers in the decade that my previous blog existed. At any rate, Truffaut is proof that hard work pays off; his knowledge of film history, theory and camera techniques is all well on display in The 400 Blows, which would be the film in question today.
The film, released in 1959 and one of the first in the cinema verite world of French new wave, tells the story of Antoine Doinel. Antoine is an adolescent boy, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud in what is safe to say is one of the best child performances in the history of film, and he has one defining characteristic that follows him throughout the entire running time: a propensity for being a cutup. The film wastes absolutely no time building up this character trait, showing (and not telling) Antoine annoying his French instructor and writing on the classroom walls. It is the first of many such instances that will plague this troubled youth throughout The 400 Blows.
Anyone who has read my reviews before knows that I'm a big structure guy - I like my scripts to have a clear, concise break between first, second and third acts and eventually build to a crescendo. There are exceptions, though - and this film would be one of them. The 400 Blows has a very loose structure, and a great example of this comes early on when Antoine skips school for a day. He inadvertently pays witness to his long-suffering mother in an adulterous embrace, an incident that would no doubt be part of an overarching plot in any other film. Here, though, it's merely a snippet, another slice of life in an existence that doesn't wrap up in a nice little bow. This story has its focus on Antoine Doinel, and from that singular purpose the narrative never wavers.
The troublesome behavior of Antoine escalates throughout the film. It starts with his mother offering him a bribe of sorts to get a decent grade on a French essay. In response, Antoine begins reading the works of Balzac for inspiration. Again, I was dead certain that the movie was headed a specific direction at this point, that it would essentially turn into "Antoine the gifted writer." But nope, he is caught for plagiarizing his idol in class and summarily runs away from home. While out on his own, Antoine eventually is caught stealing from his father's print shop and sent to a juvenile detention center.
A mood of icy realism sets in from here on out. We get more snippets of Antoine's plight, spending a night in lockup with prostitutes and making friends at an observation center for troubled children. The final scenes of The 400 Blows aren't cathartic, but they are oddly emotionally satisfying, containing one truly heartbreaking final scene between Antoine and his mother and a moment of absolution that Nelson Muntz himself would be damn proud of.
I've talked before in this little project about scenes that call attention to themselves. There are several in this film. One involves Antoine riding a carnival attraction; it's the sort of scene that I expected to be over and done in about five seconds as part of a montage, but it lingers, and lingers, and lingers, with the scene turning into a truly surreal spectacle in a way that I never would have expected. The other standout is the climax, which I'm almost certain was in the back of one of the Roger Ebert books as one of his top 100 scenes in movie history. Francois Truffaut, with his breakthrough success, showed himself to be a man with loads of film-making prowess, building on things that his idol Hitchcock did while also adding his own flair.
It's strange; this seems like the kind of movie that I definitely would not like on paper. It's cold, it's stark, it's even frustrating at times to watch Antoine make mistakes over and over. But the execution is almost perfect; emotionally, I was able to connect with this character and go along for the ride. I also haven't even mentioned the performances of the actors playing Antoine's parents - Claire Maurier is ideal as the tired, dissatisfied and (spoiler alert) slightly evil mother, while Albert Remy is fittingly affable and oblivious as the father. The elements of film are all on display here, from the direction to the cinematography to the script to the acting. There are movies that you don't expect to enjoy as much as you do, and this qualifies as one of them for yours truly.
Rating time: *** 1/2 out of ****, and I'm genuinely excited to eventually check out the FOUR ensuing films featuring the Antoine Doinel character, all directed by Truffaut and bringing back Jean-Pierre Leaud in the lead. Gimme some French fries, dammit.
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