Film Review--The 400 Blows

400 Blows
directed by François Truffaut
written by Marcel Moussy and François Truffaut
starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Guy Decomble, Patrick Auffay, Georges Flamant

It’s one of the most famous images in film. A young boy named Antoine Doinel (Léaud) has escaped detention and finally, for the first time in his life, reaches the sea. A close-up of his face is followed by a freeze frame. We don’t know where he is going from here only that for one brief instance he is free. In this intoxicating French film about the gnarled vagaries of youth, Antoine struggles to find himself amidst tremendous criticism that comes at him from every conceivable angle.

Antoine is not keen on school. He acts out, cuts class, and behaves essentially as if he considers it burdensome and not worth his time. His home life is fraught with tensions as his financially-strapped parents seem more adept at arguing than creating a loving home for him. His mother Gilberte (Maurier) is particularly cold while his stepfather Julien (Rémy) looks on helplessly. With his friend René (Auffay) Antoine makes the best of his life on the run from all the forces that would strangle him in his sleep.

The film explores issues of oppression, freedom, as well as the treatment of juvenile prisoners in France at the time the film was made. There is a monotonous quality to the prisoner’s care that mimics that at the hands of the school administrators. There’s quite a bit of marching in line involved which must grate particularly on Antoine’s nerves as he attempts to establish his individuality in a world that only seems capable of creating copies of copies. Antoine senses this and rebuffs it as often as he can.

The sensuality of youth is expertly exploited in this film. There is a legitimate feeling of adventure as we follow Antoine through the travails and incongruities of a properly misspent adolescence. He faces a singular presence that want nothing more than to restrain him, to make him into a good little citizen who fits in, plays nice, and doesn’t do anything to upset the perfect order to which he must succumb. He is threatened with ostracism and feels it so strongly that after being caught in a lie where he told his teacher he missed class because his mother died, rather than face the forthcoming wrath he spends the night away from home. It isn’t clear whether or not Antoine knows instinctively that he is behaving in a rebellious manner. It’s more likely that his instincts are guiding him away from the trap that life sets out for the unwitting and easily led.

Antoine is a spirited lad with a tremendous zest for life. There’s a scene at an amusement park of sorts where Antoine is spinning on a low-gravity ride and gleefully maneuvers his body well off of the floor where most of the others have their feet firmly planted. There’s a look of tremendous joy on his face as he works the ride. It’s such a simple thing but it shows a kid who simply by nature is more adventurous than most. He’s always looking for a strange new angle and cannot be satisfied with what is typical or expected. Subsequently he is singled out for punishment not because he’s particularly guilty of anything but more because he’s so unabashedly different.

There just isn’t anything in the codified world that is being shoved down his throat that inspires Antoine in any way whatsoever. He clearly longs for a way out and proceeds to run away on several occasions because the air at home is too stifling. Indeed, his parents want him to behave in a specific manner and he refuses on principle.


Antoine is a bright kid who knows enough to recognize the methods his administrators and parents have devised to keep him in check. He would rather wander the streets and beg for his supper than to be subjected to their tyranny one minute longer. Yet, he isn’t as tough as he imagines himself to be and there are many scenes throughout the film when he displays an acute vulnerability that resonates strongly. He isn’t quite prepared for a life on the road but he knows it beats being trapped in a life he despises.

There is one scene that stands out for its incongruity. Gilberte Doinel is a keenly sexual woman who is exceedingly cold to Antoine at every turn. She sits down and proceeds to take off her hose as a flash of thigh is displayed. She’s just about the only female in this film as everything revolves around male activities. Suddenly, there is a peek into flesh that is usually carefully concealed. It’s a sign that female sexuality remains a potent force in this film no matter how hard boys and men attempt to get away from it in their games and activities. Or perhaps it’s just flesh with no significance attached. Either way, it’s an exquisitely crafted scene that is worth worrying over strictly based on its aesthetics.

There are peeks into Antoine’s secret world such as when he places a candle and a picture of Balzac in a shrine. Unfortunately the curtains drawn in front of the flame catch fire and Antoine is blamed for trying to set the house on fire. Yes, he has criminal inclinations and very well may end up out in the world terrorizing others for fun and profit. But, one senses he is basically a good kid who needs something more profoundly illuminating in his life than what he feels and sees about him. Crime is an intoxication and more thrilling than the rudimentary fallacies that make up the typical life. He demands something to explode in the sky, forever enticing and robust. Yet, the authorities and his parents demand he sit still and be agreeable to their genteel sensibilities. But he cannot do it. He must explore this thing within him that is forever at odds with the social order. He demands to know more about it and how he can best exploit it.

Antoine is simply every mischievous boy who gets a taste of the illicit at an impressionable age.
He is shown another path toward instant gratification through the theft of a typewriter he and René plan to sell. Unfortunately he is caught when he tries to put it back and this is where his true troubles begin. He is thrust into a wire cage with another boy and it’s agonizing to watch him sit there rotting for his crime. He is eventually cast into a home for juvenile delinquents and is forced into the same repetitive inanity that he attempts to escape when he is on the outside. Still, no jail can hold the truly adventurous spirit and he manages to escape during a game of soccer. He runs and runs until he finally reaches the sea.

Will Antoine run into a brick wall and find himself accosted with the brutal reality of the genuine jail experience? He’s escaped for now but it’s most likely inevitable that he will be hunted down and dragged back to the home and forced to endure the agony of incarceration. Or will this sense of possibilities remain entrenched in his psychic makeup affording him an opportunity to retain his rebellious spirit within the framework of conventional society? Either way he is going to have to adjust to a type of order.

The performances in this film are all exceptionally adept at capturing the essence of the narrative. Jean-Pierre Léaud, is dynamic from start to finish. He makes us believe in his character’s audacity and his yearning for something extraordinary. He also establishes Antoine’s vulnerability as well as his naivete. There is such an openness on his face at all times that he reflects back at us all of those moments where we shared the same lack of comprehension about the legitimacy of authority both parental and external. Claire Maurier is impressive as the cool, ravishing beauty who is not quite willing or able to bond with Antoine in the manner which he deserves. She’s cold, primal, and wholly impatient with her son. She wants results and is perfectly unaware of her role in helping achieve them.

Overall, this film explores the nature of youthful rebellion with an exacting, realistic urgency. The cinematography by Henri Decaë brings a clarity to Antoine’s plight and resonates with a stark beauty that routinely fuels the imagination and arrests the senses. There is a tremendous amount of hope in this film as cemented in its final image. There is freedom, delight, and longing for something that exists beyond the horizon. Antoine is a cataclysm. He’s vibrant, seeking, and altogether poised and willing to face whatever comes. Still, he’s a difficult child and his parents seek only to reign him in so that he can get a proper education and take his place in society. It’s a common plea and not unreasonable. Still, Antoine must make a decision and the genius of this film is that we are left awaiting such a decision and have no idea how his life is going to pan out. At least until the later series of films where Truffault continues with his character showing his development at later stages in his life.