Twelve-year-old Antoine Doinel is a difficult teenager. His mother is busy with her personal life, and she has neither the time nor the desire to delve into her son’s problems. The stepfather is a weak person, he has no influence either on his wife or on his son. The teacher only punishes the boy. Antoine and his friend are less likely to attend school, run away from home. None of this leads to anything good.

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One of the main films of the French New Wave appeared in 1959 at the very dawn of the nascent informal movement in France. Many talented filmmakers have come out of the French cinematheque, and yet few of them have achieved the same success as the former film reviewer Fran̤ois Truffaut Рa man of difficult fate, but of an easy character.

The debut in the cinema, the tape “400 Blows” cannot be called, because before that the director had already, for example, the short film “Tomboys”, where Truffaut turned to the theme of a difficult childhood. Another thing is that the full-length debut of the Frenchman turned out to be so bright that it was very difficult to recognize a non-professional in him. The prize for directing at Cannes and the nomination of the American Film Academy for the best script were obtained already at the age of 25 (!) Age. But the main thing is different – the tape became one of the manifestos of the new cinema even before Jean-Luc Godard’s program tape “Breathless”.

Truffaut has always been different from other comrades-in-arms in movement. He did not shock the public like the same Godard, did not try to occupy his own style niche or reach the target audience. On the contrary, he was the director with the most “soft” style. He freely moved from genre to genre and experimented in a good way with form and content, which was a consequence of his unwillingness to repeat himself and be squeezed into certain frames.

When the question arose about the plot of his first film, Truffaut showed his inherent simplicity and based the story on the “childish” part of his biography. He showed resourcefulness in choosing an actor for the main role. Jean-Pierre Leo, who later became a kind of alter ego of Truffaut, was chosen for the role among numerous candidates for one single reason – the director saw an extraordinary resemblance between Leo and himself in those same years. As Truffaut later admitted, the characters of the performer and the main character turned out to be slightly different, and the director decided that he should not break the young actor over the knee and made some changes in the psychological portrait of his hero, who, unlike his prototype, became less timid, shy and weak-willed boy.

To the credit of the director, he does not try to make a confession about his difficult life out of the film. He does not denigrate anyone, does not try to squeeze a tear out of the viewer or act as someone’s accuser. His story is simple, with notes of irony and self-irony. Antoine Doinel is a simple boy. Moderately obedient, moderately lively, moderately dreamy, moderately acting with an eye on parents and teachers, moderately influenced by peers. He attends a regular school class, where 30 other boys are studying with him. They have a despotic French teacher, whom Doinel, like many others, wants to “heap on” before leaving for the army. Every missed school, every missed homework draws disciplinary action. A stepfather, a nervous, always yelling and cheating mother, and material troubles in the family do not allow parents to penetrate into the boy’s inner world, to try to understand his problems. Antoine has a friend, similar to whom, for sure, many had during training. It is he who will spur on skipping lessons, offering much more interesting classes. And he, in an attempt to help, will spin the flywheel of the fate of the protagonist.

Truffaut’s lack of family attention will later be reflected in his film “Antoine and Colette”, a short film from the film almanac “Love at 20”, where he will continue the story of Antoine, who has matured and learns the first love secrets. In the film, the hero falls in love not only and not so much with the sweet girl Colet, but also with her family. Strong and healthy. The one he never had. Later, the story of Doinel Truffaut will continue in three more full-length films. In all films, the same Jean-Pierre Leo, growing up with his hero, played. Thus, the director created a unique cycle of films that has no analogues in the history of world cinema, united by the story of one hero, who, together with the actor, grew up and developed right in the frame in front of the audience.

The theme of escape runs through the film. Young Antoine runs all the time: from boring schoolwork, from disciplinary punishments, from parental anger. He also runs in the final to, it would seem, his dream. But projecting the fate of the hero onto the life of Truffaut himself, we can confidently say that Francois ran away in his life. To the world where he lived his life in a new way, to the world of cinema.

The relationship between the protagonist and the world around him is indicative. And it’s not even that the world is hostile. No, rather, we are talking about indifference to the fate of Antoine, who is left to himself, free to do what he wants and build life as he pleases. Here the director does not dramatize and is very philosophical about what is happening. Bribes the honesty of the director. Not that ostentatious honesty, the purpose of which is to shock and shock, and what, at times, festival regulars sin. With Truffaut, everything is somehow simpler and at the same time closer to the viewer. It is not for nothing that the film is dedicated to the famous critic and film theorist André Bazin, the director’s guardian angel who brought him to the cinema, and who, perhaps, was the only one who, at the right moment, was not indifferent to the fate of Antoine Doinel’s prototype.
One of Truffaut’s two inspirations for this film was Roberto Rossellini and his film: “Germany: Year Zero”, which also dealt with little boys roaming around an unfriendly city. Without hiding his passion for Italian neorealism, Truffaut saturates his film with its subtle notes, paying respect to his idol on the one hand, and on the other, not being afraid to admit that he borrows something from others. Certain elements of the film are borrowed from American cinema, which gives it an extra lightness and watchability.

Truffaut’s film should be shown at least once a year on central television channels, timing its broadcast to coincide with Children’s Day. There are quite a few high-profile films on the “children’s” theme, and yet “400 Blows” pleasantly stands out against this background. You can watch it as a social film on a “title” theme, as a milestone in the history of cinema, or as a simple story with beautiful shots, beautiful light music and convincing actors. A story told simply, sincerely and ironically. A story in which Truffaut is all.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (70.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
French: Dolby Digital Mono
French: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English, French.