400 Blows

Quatre cents coups, Les (1959) is a French film also known as 400 Blows in English is directed by Francois Truffaut. The movie basically revolves around an ordinary young kid in Paris, Antoine Doinel (Jean - Pierre Leaud) who is thought by his parents and teachers to be a trouble maker, having lack of attention from the people close to him, the agony he had been through when his parents start arguing, he then starts to delve into a life of petty crime at a young age. This is a biography drama and the whole movie is actually shot on the days of Antoine’s life, from morning until night. This autobiography reflects on many events of Truffaut’s life too as stated in Wikipedia. This movie is one of the defining films of the French New Wave which displays many characteristic traits of the movement.

I like the ending part the most, when the he was running to the sea, he runs runs and runs and the when he reach the sea, he finally realize that he had reach the place where he had always wanted to go but he did not know what to do next since he had reach the sea. The camera shoots the scene in a very good position, which is where shots were taken far from Antoine when he was running. At the end of the movie, Antoine looks straight into the camera and that let the viewer see the expression of his face clearly. When the movie ended, I was a bit taken back because I was expecting that he would do something but no, the movie ended there. The ending part made the viewer wonder what “What happen next?”, “So what now, since he had reach the place that he wanted to go all along?” and a lot of question marks were raised when the movie ended. The ending leaves the viewer to think and ponder what about what Antoine had been through in his life so far and feel for him.

I did enjoy this movie although I had to read the subtitles which was really not what I like to do.