The 400 Blows. (PG.)
Directed by Francois Truffaut. 1959.
Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Patrick Auffay, Guy Decomble. French with subtitles. 99 mins.
Generally regarded as the starting point of the Nouvelle Vague, Truffaut’s debut film was a breath of fresh air when it was released fifty years ago and half a century later the charm and vibrancy of this childhood tale can still blow the cobwebs out clear out of an auditorium and reconnect an audience to the power of movie making.
Aged 14, Jean-Pierre Leaud began a five film residency playing Truffaut’s alter ego Antoine Doinel. We drop in on Doinel aged 12, when he’s a mischievous, affection starved youngster attending and occasionally playing truant from a Parisian school, somehow always finding himself in more trouble than his relatively mild transgressions deserve.
It’s just a simple film about a growing up but the combination of Leaud’s unforced naturalism and Truffaut’s ability to make documentary realism seem nothing like a documentary, create something that hits you harder than you expect and builds towards one of cinema’s great closing images.
Directed by Francois Truffaut. 1959.
Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Patrick Auffay, Guy Decomble. French with subtitles. 99 mins.
Generally regarded as the starting point of the Nouvelle Vague, Truffaut’s debut film was a breath of fresh air when it was released fifty years ago and half a century later the charm and vibrancy of this childhood tale can still blow the cobwebs out clear out of an auditorium and reconnect an audience to the power of movie making.
Aged 14, Jean-Pierre Leaud began a five film residency playing Truffaut’s alter ego Antoine Doinel. We drop in on Doinel aged 12, when he’s a mischievous, affection starved youngster attending and occasionally playing truant from a Parisian school, somehow always finding himself in more trouble than his relatively mild transgressions deserve.
It’s just a simple film about a growing up but the combination of Leaud’s unforced naturalism and Truffaut’s ability to make documentary realism seem nothing like a documentary, create something that hits you harder than you expect and builds towards one of cinema’s great closing images.
