My lovely(ish) film review...

The film The 400 Blows was good. It was not a spectacular piece of art or a theatrical masterpiece. However, it kept me entertained or at least awake, and the mischievous actions of Antoine made me crack a smile. It was not a happy film, but at the finish I was in a good mood, and not because the film was over. Overall, this movie was satisfactory.

In the film The 400 Blows, the protagonist is Antoine. Antoine is a twelve-year-old in the 1930’s, living in Paris, France. He struggles to find acceptance at school and at home, so he lashes out and does rebellious things. He first gets caught with a dirty picture in class. Then, while he is being punished for having the picture, he writes on the wall. The teacher finds out and to punish Antoine, he must talk to his parents and have them pay for the damage to school property. He does not tell them, and instead of going back to school the next day and facing his teacher, he and his best friend skip school. While he is running around town, he spots his mom kissing a man that was not Antoine’s’ stepfather. She sees that he saw her. Both of them are busted, but neither can do anything about it, or they both will be caught. The next day when Antoine goes back to school, the teacher wants to know why Antoine was not in school. Antoine makes up a tale that his mother had died. This story backfires when one of the kids Antoine goes to school with tells his parents Antoine was not in school. When his parents arrive at school, Antoine is busted. After all of this happened, Antoine stole his fathers typewriter and got caught with it. In the end, Antoine is sent to a Juvenile Delinquent School and then escapes.

Jean-Pierre Léaud plays Antoine in the film. Jean-Pierre Léaud played the role of a bad French boy very effectively. He is very scrawny and that makes it all the more convincing that he is a poor suffering child. He also looks French and obviously speaks French as his first language, so he fits his description well. His costumes are very dirty and old looking. Claire Maurier plays Antoine’s mother. Her character is glamorous and flamboyant and she looks like both of those things. Her classic French features and 30’s style blonde curled hair make her perfect for the part. She pulls off the snobby, bratty, wannabe society girl flawlessly. Even though her family is poor, she has very nice clothes including furs. Guy Decomble plays the frustrated French teacher. He looks the part; his clothes are geeky, and he is old. However, the part is a bit overdone. He seems very unnatural, and a bit embarrassed to be in front of the camera. Overall the acting in this film was not perfect, but also not horrible.
There were different cinematic aspects in this film. The music was the same throughout, a melodic tune that changed slightly to correspond to the situation. The photography was not commercial, it was arty. It had odd camera angles, especially in Antoine’s house. Some shots were very long. The shot of the children watching the puppet show seemed candid, but went on forever. The shot of Antoine escaping was endless. He ran and ran, in a very peculiar manner, and if the shot would have been several minutes shorter, it would have gone with the flow of the film much more seamlessly. The end of the movie was terrible. It ended with Antoine at the ocean, which would have been cool if they would not have simply stopped the camera on Antoine’s face. They could have faded out into black or stopped the camera on the ocean, but because they ended it on a blurry image of his face, the ending seemed choppy.
The film The 400 Blows and the novel Black Boy by Richard Write are similar. They both have struggling/oppressed protagonists. Antoine and Richard both want to have freedom, but freedom is not socially acceptable for either. They both have a horrible family life, as Richard is oppressed and beaten and Antoine is ignored and then discarded. Their family considers them a burden to carry. They are different though. They escape from their terrible lives in different ways. Richard writes and Antoine watches films. Also Richards’ life is less sheltered than Antoine’s. He Deals with the threat of death daily, while Antoine’s parents refuse to beat him. Richard has good morals. He only steals when it is necessary, where as Antoine steals for the thrill of it.
I highly recommend this movie. I especially recommend it to those who are into old films. The plot was simple, the characters were very well portrayed and old fashioned. The costumes were true to the time period. Any one who is into films would look at this as a film that is highly important and well one. I think that the film would appeal to everyone to old sentimental folks to young mischievous children who need a role model.