About twenty full-length paintings over two decades of creative activity is a rich legacy for a man who was once a difficult teenager, like his hero Antoine Doinel. At the same time, François Truffaut is not only a practitioner, but also a theorist of a new type of cinema: liberated, free, raising problems inconvenient for society. When the author of these lines was about the same age as Doinel in 400 Blows, he already knew about this film and really wanted to see it, but it so happened that he did not watch it first. However, even in this form, the tape made an incredible impression. Now, having watched it three times, I understand how obvious the influence of Jean Vigo and his Zero for Behavior is in it and how decisively he influenced the further development of world cinema, especially British cinema (in particular, Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Loach’s Kes).
Ideologically biased Soviet film criticism gloated when this debut of Truffaut came out: they say, look how disliked and abandoned teenagers live in the bourgeois world. But I don’t think the Four Strikes is about that. Yes, of course, it is about the arbitrariness of adults, their cruelty and enthusiasm for themselves, but also about the thirst for freedom, the desire to be heard in a deaf mute everyday life. The relaxation of the “new wave”, this new type of cinema with its street shooting, hand-held camera, sincere lyricism and immediacy in looking at the world with young eyes – all this, of course, is here, as in the debuts of Godard, Chabrol, Mal. But Truffaut succeeded, which failed at his colleagues, to create in fact the first portrait of the generation of baby boomers, waiting for radical changes from life.
This is not just a protest against the bourgeois and philistine nature of the adult world, against the violence and horror of compulsory school discipline, not just about the desire to find one’s place in life, but also a very charming rejection of rigid social structures that turn a person into a puppet. Now that Fight Club is outright radical, twenty-first-century youth are unlikely to be inspired by the humble humanity of Truffaut’s debut. The film may seem outdated, slow, deceptively simple, however, this simplicity is so deeply imbued with humanity and empathy for difficult teenagers (in fact, future beatniks, hippies and goshists of 1968) that it should not be taken as an anti-bourgeois statement.
The Four Hundred Strikes is a protest against all forms of unfreedom, above all against the everyday slavery of everyday life. Surprisingly, as the subsequent paintings of the Duanel cycle show, the hero seems to have successfully fit into the philistine context of adult life, and without becoming a combatant-goshist. However, it was important for Truffaut to give a portrait of the majority of baby boomers, not his militant minority, and this in particular is his basic difference from Godard. These directors amazingly complement each other in the panorama of the generation they portray. The fact that they started together, and then became on different sides of the barricades, there is nothing strange: Truffaut always remained a humanist and filmed about the majority and for the majority, Godard, having been ill with all kinds of political and cultural radicalism, almost forgot how to shoot at all, working sectarianly for a narrow segment of the audience.
Antoine Doinel, as he appears in "400 Strikes", is in principle a good guy, quite obedient and compliant, but his discord with society lies not only in the area of puberty. He is the representative of a generation that manifested itself in the cinema through a multitude of national “new waves” from Sweden and the Czech Republic to Japan and the USSR, and yearned for freedom from convention and walking morality more than any other generation before him. It is in this combination of humanity and freedom that Truffaut’s debut is the main secret of its charm, for it is completely free from any wave of ideological fanaticism and sectarian narrow-mindedness. Having made a film about himself, Leo and everyone like them and touchingly dedicating it to the memory of Andre Bazin, the director formulates his credo and makes his way to the cinema, his special way - to make a film about people and for people, loving people, that is, doing what Godard for half a century of creative search could not achieve.
Wide strokes paint a picture of a cruel society in which a person tries to find alternatives to existence in which he can manifest himself. The narrative is led by bright flashes, key moments in the boy's life. Alternatives are manifested in the form of any deviations from the framework set by him: in theft, avoidance of the prevailing reality in escapes from school, home, from a colony for difficult children. Society is presented as an organized machine to suppress a person and educate him for his needs, it gives guarantees of existence, but not freedom.
Each new stage of escape from this framework ends for the boy with increasing cruelty and setting new goals in search of his place, the last goal was the sea - a symbol of boundlessness and freedom, he does not concede to circumstances and plans an escape. In the sea he falls into a wall, it is calm and indifferent, like all nature and society in relation to man. There is no other way but to find new meanings.
The struggle for oneself as an endless process with an endless series of new goals, not in dreaming and accepting the inevitability of the world built by people (for example, his friend), but in action.
Creativity and freedom are born in struggle.
For his debut feature-length film “400 strokes”, French director Francois Truffaut won the prize at the Cannes Film Festival for best director. This film has no definite plot. Francois Truffaut will simply show a few days in the life of twelve-year-old Antoine Doinel. The “French New Wave”, which was just emerging in those years, greatly influenced the whole cinematography and we have a very bright representative of this direction.
Godard’s Last Breath will be much more popular than 400 Blows. It's a pity that few people remember Truffaut's movie. After all, he made a very honest and very vital picture. In general, a lot of good pictures were shot about the life of teenagers, but almost all of them were shot in the genre - comedy or melodrama. And Truffaut made a real drama about a little man who has long grown up inside. He is not interested in school and his parents do not notice him. And all around is a life from which it is impossible to escape.
The main advantage of this film is the actor Jean-Pierre Leo. Truffaut was very lucky to have this little actor because he played so much in the movie. For a second, it may seem that you are watching a movie not about a little boy, but about a grown man. Truffaut will love Leo’s performance and he will invite him to star in his other films. Truffaut has made his most personal film. The main character of the film is Francois Truffaut himself in his youth.
This film is shot in black and white and it has very little dialogue, and about the musical design I will not say. Modern viewers may not even like this movie because of its slow pace. Therefore, I would like to recommend this film to all those who are interested in such a direction in cinema as “French New Wave” and just good films about life. A film classic that must be respected.
“The house is not where you were born.” The house where your attempts to escape have ceased
The path of growing up is difficult and difficult, but it is here that we form ourselves as individuals, putting the grains of perception on the conflicts of the present together. ' Four Strikes' is a meaningful story that touches on youthful individualism in the conformist community of slavery.
Antoine Doinel as François Truffaut's alter ego. The director shows his hero breaking out of the general rut of the sequence of life - he repeatedly commits offenses that go against established principles. This is most expressively depicted in the scene of a rotating attraction: even despite the physical limitations of centrifugal force, Antoine maneuvered along the wall of the rotary carousel while the rest of the visitors maintained a standard body position. In spite of the freedom-loving boy, resistance always follows and it, like a vicious circle, catches up with him everywhere: whether it is an exaggeratedly formidable teacher, irresponsible parents, the prison system and, finally, the sea. Only the well-known final close-up brings an end to these endless scraps, but the answer to the question remains unclear: could Antoine overcome the last obstacle? The director in a revolutionary manner invites the viewer to look for the answer himself.
Although there is a desperate struggle between uniqueness and everyday life, Truffaut sees this world as one of kindness and humanity. The musical work, not accepted by the director, paradoxically, emphasizes the belief in the best with its notes. The very vision of the film is presented through the subjective view of the main character, so there is no moralizing background and a dramatic reaction to seemingly terrible acts: voluntary abdication of his son and sending him to a correctional colony. Because awareness of what is happening in the immature mind does not occur immediately: Antoine tears not at the time of imprisonment in a cell, but during his departure on a van, seeing through the grid the streets illuminated by lights, which he may never see again.
Truffaut’s film is inferior to modern works of cinema in the visual range, but it has a sensual charm, erecting a flattering appearance of new paintings. In the performance of the French author, each frame has its own attractive power. For example, the discreet and unremarkable jog of the protagonist closer to the final affects the audience’s attention in an incomprehensible way, combining a simple but touching metaphor of freedom. Freedom is the main word for the French New Wave and Truffaut’s name is its undoubted synonym.
'400 Blows' is a slap in the face. The young film critic François Truffaut was tired of watching the same type of French films, and he broke into the cinema with his creation. Probably, at that time he did not realize that he was discovering something new and became one of the founders of the French New Wave & #39.
'400 Blows' is a film about the life of a twelve-year-old boy, Antoine, about a life that puts him in a difficult position. Neither at home nor at school can he exist. Pressure from the school, a teacher who doesn't care about the student; just a scream. At home, the situation is no better: a mother who is only busy with her own life treats her son connivance and neglectful; her stepfather (weak-hearted) suffers from negligence and cannot give a decent upbringing to Antoine. All these factors aggravate the boy’s already difficult situation. Antoine is a rebel within, coupled with complete indifference on the part of his parents and misunderstanding on the part of his teachers, which leads him to the life of a ragged thief. He tries to understand himself, to understand his place in the world. It combines youthful maximalism and nonconformism.
All Antoine’s attempts to change one’s attitude towards himself end in failure: the desire to learn better becomes futile because of the teacher who stops them; it is better to behave at home and be at least a little obedient that also turns into failure. Constant family conflicts, punishments, betrayal of the mother in front of the boy - all this leads Antoine to the road & #39; on which his car of life will go in the wrong direction. All he has to do is run away. They are guided by the thoughts that every teenager has about freedom and independence.
But independent living is never easy. Living with a friend, Antoine's mobility grows from pranks to theft. Burned for theft, his stepfather sends him to a correctional institution for juvenile offenders. The parents finally disown the child. Life in the institution is not sweet and Antoine again decides to escape. He runs where his eyes look without stopping.
In the finale of the picture we see the sea shore, on which the hero dreamed to visit. In the last frame, we no longer see joy in the boy, on his face is written hopelessness, confusion and despair inside. From the former passion to be independent and adult there is no trace left.
'400 beats' is a classic film. A cruel story about growing up and accepting this world. Truffaut created a truly bold, intelligent and uncompromising film. This is the film with which the formation of a new trend in cinema was supposed to begin.
The changes that took place in France in the late fifties were an important period in the history of cinema, they represented a paradigm shift and established clichés regarding the content, ideas and style of filmmaking. The revolution in the idea of cinema, which had an impact on the entire film industry, followed thanks to the young film critics of Andre Bazin’s magazine Caille du Cinema, who did not agree with the general, ingrained direction in cinema of that time, they opposed the absurdity, absurdity and unreality of dialogue, the banality of the narrative. Having decided to act in practice, the editors of the magazine become directors. Their main principles were: rejection of commercial cinema and exclusion from theatrical concepts in favor of lively naturalness. The so-called “French New Wave” was established by such big names as Jean Luc Godard, Eric Romer, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Francois Truffaut. The main distinguishing features of the new direction were radicalism, free camera, improvisation in the frame and street shooting outside the pavilions. The most sensational films of the nascent direction were Godard’s Last Breath and Truffaut’s Four Hundred Strokes, which caused a furor with their freshness and informality, which attracted public attention to the whole trend.
Faire les 400 coups
The life of Paris twelve-year-old schoolboy Antoine is not the most pleasant. He has no peace at home or school. Relationships with parents and teachers leave much to be desired. Irresponsible and disrespectful to the son mother and negligence with weak character stepfather only aggravate his situation. Rebel nature, indifference of parents, hostility and misunderstanding of teachers, carefree school years, fascinating missed classes with a classmate, hooliganism, attempts at self-discovery, audacity, maximalism and nonconformism - all this is the basis, the foundation of the full-length debut of Francois Truffaut.
From the desire to succeed in learning, Antoine does not come out, an unfair biased teacher instantly suppresses them, attempts to please parents and become an obedient child also turn into failure. Constant punishments, conflicts, misdemeanors and, in addition, the betrayal of his mother, noticed by him with his own eyes, irretrievably lead Antoine down a dysfunctional path. Under the pressure of what is happening and fearing another retribution for his guilt, Antoine decides to flee. Thoughts of freedom and independence guide him. Having settled with a friend, Antoine's restlessness grows from petty pranks into theft. Caught in theft, the stepfather decides to send him to a correctional institution. Life there is not sweet and, given that his parents finally disown him, Antoine again makes an escape. This antics will not get away with him, now he faces a colony for minors.
Reconnaissance d'erreur
In the final scene on the seashore, the hopelessness, confusion and despair of the inner state is expressed by deep regret and remorse in the face of a difficult child, as if trying to figure out how everything went so far. There is no enthusiasm left from the previous naive fantasies about independence and adulthood. Was it worth all the suffering? The look speaks for itself.
Les Quatre cents coups is a 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Leo starring an autobiographical narrative, inspiration from Vigo’s poetic realism, resistance, obstinacy, carelessness, freedom of spirit and the struggle of individuality with social order; it is zero for behavior.
In many ways, this picture begins one of the most incredible pages in the history of cinema. A handful of film critics, tired of traditional French films, almost overnight upended an entire art form. It is still unclear how they managed this, but the world of cinema will not be the same.
'Four beats' and tells about a difficult teenager, Antoine. He lives in a not very prosperous family and very quickly descends down the curved path, starting with systematic absenteeism. But we can see that the boy does it absolutely not out of evil. He is unhappy and has no special purpose in life except the sea. He's never seen him before.
This picture was the debut for Francois Truffaut, in many ways it is autobiographical. That is why the tragic story of the lost teenager looks in many ways sincere and real. This film is absolutely alive, and through the black and white range, which seems to many no more than a reflection of antiquity, the real bright colors break through. You don't even have to think of anything. I just want to run to the sea and look into the distance, not thinking about family problems or useless lessons.
'Four Blows' is a recognized masterpiece, a stunning and brutal story of growing up. Uncompromising, audacious and very clever. Fourteen-year-old Jean-Pierre Leo became a movie star. Enterprising and talented François Truffaut will turn to his character. More than once. I will tell you about all these appeals soon.
'Always believed that the study of films 50 years ago is ineffective for modern creativity'
Once 27-year-old film critic Francois Truffaut showed the world a picture. The picture is about a boy who has a family with pronounced defects (infidelity, night screams, poverty, intellectual disability), as well as a hater of education. Of course, the school teachers of the boy also have defects.
In the context of 1959, the picture ' Four Strikes' caused a resonance: it was innovative, daring, acutely social and even beautiful in its own way. Everyone is tired of films with grotesque, exaggerated characters with unnatural theatrical play.
And then a new era began:
The French New Wave was born.
Sixty-two years have passed. . .
The world saw Game of Thrones, Parasites, Sweet Bones, Joker performed by Heath Ledger, and also played for the boy in the film ' Black Mirror Brandshmag'.
What is it like to watch a naughty boy in a black and white movie today?
Internally, the professor is actively chanting:
': This is a legendary movie! It's valuable to history!
Without him, there would be no heroes in colored tights!
Trantines and Nolans, Goslings and DiCaprio
Everyone owes their lives to the great Truffaut!'
It's all indisputable, Professor, but
This film has already become the same soap opera that Truffaut once left. Let’s be honest, today this picture is respectfully painful. The process of immersion in the film became an act of conscious masochism in the art format.
In the era when flying machines are created, reality has an augmented and virtual version, and artificial intelligence creates funny video games, we, descendants, have to watch through the pain of the boy from the Four Hundred Blows.
However, it is still worth seeing the picture.
Something inexplicably useful is still there.
- Perhaps the sincerity with which the author speaks to the viewer.
- Perhaps the inner rebelliousness that every reader of this review has.
- Or perhaps a cyclical verse from the Inner Professor. . .
“Art is not without pain; at the same time, art exists to compensate for pain.”
- Till Lindemann
Oh, that young school time! Analyzing many children's Soviet films, I enjoy watching stories about school life, about the interactions of classmates, their views and naive dreams. Now France has given me a similar product from its side, where the main character is a slippery schoolboy, a boy who lives his own views and sets important tasks against the education system, against family values. Adolescent maximalism, which is expressed in difficult times in the country.
“400 Blows” is the equivalent of our “33 Misfortune,” implying that the character is in trouble no matter what he takes on. Well, adventures can lead to different places, and here the culture and life of the French family, where each member of the family is individual, lives his inner life, but only externally assigns himself a label to the “cell of society”. Therefore, although the tape is about a difficult child, but it perfectly reflects both adult life and the relationships of close people to each other.
First of all, through the prism of the tape, you can consider the upbringing of the son. Whatever happens to him is the fault of his parents. François Truffaut’s directorial debut emphasizes this. The mother's behavior and the father's remarks say that the child is not needed in this family. Passing through contempt and imitation of love, the main character identifies himself with an outcast, for the viewer an inner, cornered beast is revealed, which using the method “attack is the best defense”, as if deliberately behaves out of hand. There is no emphasis on any violence, everything is indirect, but very clearly.
School. This is no longer an institution of knowledge, but a place where baby Antoine becomes with himself, having a friend who helps him in difficult situations. What kind of education can we talk about if parents: (a) work all the time; (b) they are tired every time after work; and (c) they do not care about the life of their son? Of course, when there are complaints or calls to school, the punishments find their object, but in this key from the "stick and carrot" we have only "stick".
Difficult times, justified by age, family status and attitude at school, give the viewer intriguing episodes of two friends who are trying to become independent from adults. Many episodes please with their local aspects: a weaving factory, a classmate's house, his father's work, an amusement park - all elements are inspiring when watching, and the portrait of the main character in the eyes of the viewer is created quite ordinary for a boy who is looking for entertainment. It is this difference in the first and second half of the film – first childish naivety and entertainment, and then the severity of adult life, dangerous deeds and attempts to become independent, to become an adult.
The dangerous moment, which could even be rewritten as the fear of childhood, deliberately turns the relationship of the mother to the son, giving rise to bewilderment in the eyes of the father, and showing the viewer that even adults and seemingly right-wing people are not perfect themselves. This film reveals the actions committed by adults, but revealed to us through the eyes of a child.
By the end, we learn the main parental secret, which raises more questions than answers. And the relationship of each parent to the son can now be turned upside down. The course is magnificent, and the impressions from it are unforgettable. Revelations of the main character at the end shed light on all the actions in the picture, why the perplexity about education pass by itself.
This is an interesting picture about a complex life, about growing up and reflecting the actions of adults through the actions of a teenager. Acquaintance (albeit prematurely) with the system of punishment and justice. This is a reflection of older age in the eyes of children. It is parenting that plays a key role in social drama.
The film shocked me and greatly influenced my life, I wanted to shoot such films more often. The picture of amazing power, the poetry and the dirt are so mixed, the prison and the street are so intertwined, that you begin to see society differently.
Dunael is the name of a free man, an eternal child, who wants to take everything from life, but on whom the 33 misfortunes fall. I think Dunael is an autobiography of Truffaut himself, perhaps as a child he always fled from somewhere - from a children's camp, school, the army.
This boy attracts attention to himself - this incorruptible naivety, thirst for life. In general, the film can be characterized by a poem by Samuel Marshak.
It's been a long time since I was a child,
It's hard to remember him.
And my childhood is far away.
Like a closed house.
In this house, everyone is alive and well.
Those who are long gone.
And a hanging lamp in the dining room.
The light is still warm.
“Four Blows” is one of such stories, where through laughter you can hear genuine sympathy for the failures of the hero, where in the simple simple presentation of facts lies faith in the best in a person, no matter what happens. And undoubtedly, this film can be ranked among those works that will be relevant in all generations of readers and viewers, because truth, seasoned with humanity and inequality, never becomes obsolete.
10 out of 10
Once again I review the film saga of Francois Truffaut about the life and growing up of Antoine Doinel.
The story begins with the movie Four Hundred Strokes, which is probably my favorite. Talking about it, it is impossible not to mention the rest of the films included in this cycle: “Love in 20 years”, “Stolen kisses”, “Family hearth”, “Escaped love”.
This is the cinema of the so-called "New Wave" in France, when such directors as René, Godard, Truffaut appeared, who rejected the traditional methods of filming in pavilions, with artificial scenery, the theatrical style of play. It was this period that was a landmark, the very concept of “author’s cinema” appeared – the quintessence of world cinematography.
Now for the movie itself.
It is partly autobiographical, narrates about the difficult period of growing up of the boy Antoine, disputes with parents and teachers, an irresistible thirst for justice ("Four hundred strokes"). Next comes the film “Love in 20 years”, which continues the story of hopeless romance and rebel: a difficult youth, failures in love, finding yourself. Then "Stolen Kisses," where Antoine finally finds his happiness.
And then about family life and all its attributes (children, betrayals, intrigues) – “Family hearth”, “Escaped love”.
These are my favorite movies. Probably because the main character is very close to me in spirit, and the movie itself looks easy. The secret lies in the manner of presentation of Truffaut - simplicity and sincerity. Godard, for example, has more aggressive films, I think.
By the way, thanks to this saga, the world learned about Jean-Pierre Leo. Truffaut found it on an ad in the newspaper and presented the main role for 20 years.
In conclusion, I want to say with confidence that such a classic is immortal!
In 1959, with the release of the film “400 beats” there was a revolution in all French cinema. The film-triumph of the Cannes Film Festival critic Francois Truffaut from the authoritative “Cinematographic Notebooks” (Caye du Cinema) is a glove thrown in the face of “daddy cinema” (canonical, studio).
400 Strikes is a lively, audacious, autobiographical film about the fate of 12-year-old Antoine Doinel. Antoine is an outsider hero who has no place in his environment. All his attempts to please, adjust - initially already failed. “Sometimes it’s better to lie than to tell the truth,” Antoine said. Even if this lie goes so far, he lies about the death of his mother, justifying himself to the teacher about the absence of school, because Truffaut’s alter ego is so, however, easier.
Antoine, like any “unbearable child”, in Truffaut’s opinion, craves independence from problems and circumstances, so the only sure solution for an unlucky teenager is to flee from them. The whole film Antoine runs from some problems straight into the wide embrace of others, which each time more and more. Escape for Antoine, who has already come to terms with circumstances, is not a way to find himself, but an attempt to protect himself. The famous stop frame with a confused expressive look at the frame of Antoine at the end of the film is the moment when the hero, running to the sea, no longer understands where to run next. Meeting with the viewer, the young hero of the French actor Jean-Pierre Leo breaks the fourth wall and seems to be waiting for the audience advice.
I'm staining the cool walls ... and defaming French poetry.
Antoine Doinel is a child who does not love his mother. Not leaving his grievances unvengeable, he runs towards adulthood, without looking back and not thinking about the correctness of the planned path. Every time he has to open the first door he sees in front of him, just to get out of the next room, the walls of which wanted to crush him as soon as he entered. And behind each chosen door, instead of the long-awaited freedom, he has a room even smaller, even darker than before. It is impossible to turn back, it remains only to get out to the touch, simultaneously dropping everything that comes to hand.
Having singled out several such “rooms”, which are a consistent chain of elections before the “house” was left, the director filled his story with daring antics of the protagonist, which, being in conjunction with the dialogues describing the reaction of people around him, literally immediately begin to cause bewilderment and push the interested viewer to search for a reasonable explanation for such unreasonable actions. But the further events develop, the clearer the age-old question is heard: are not the hero’s antics the reaction, and the reaction of adults the catalyst of his subsequent destructive actions? Destructive primarily for Antoine himself.
Poor Antoine Doinel suffers, he was unjustly punished.
Antoine Doinel is a child whose mother does not love. Antoine doesn't know how to behave. Wiping his hands against the curtains, he sets the table, because it is so important for parents that their son is, if not extremely intelligent, then at least useful, and even better, invisible. And Antoine has long agreed with their terms, but only the call of the heart does not always allow you to focus on the performance of your duties, and the lack of love and proper education almost deprives you of the opportunity to make the right choice. And so from each step in the dark, everything begins to crash, attracting attention and preventing you from going further.
The essence of Antoine’s actions in an explicit and implicit form is drawn over and over again throughout the film. Trying to clean the school wall, Antoine only smears everything. To him, stunned by the team, it becomes clear: try to fix everything, and it will get worse, it is better to just run away and try to start again. But under the close supervision of the operator of the actions of a classmate Antoine prompts that, not fixing anything, but simply opening a new page, in the end you can be left with nothing.
François Truffaut, putting, though not completely, the basis of the idea of his childhood, with the help of the insightful acting of Jean-Pierre Leo, representing the image of the unfortunate Antoine Doinel, and the work of the rest of the film crew was able to make his full-length debut bright and multifaceted. Operator techniques Henri Dequet, not sinning monotony, allowed to observe the life of Antoine from the outside: sometimes from around the corner, sometimes from afar, to enhance his insignificance and invisibility. And the music of the composer Jean Constantin added to the film children's fun, carefree, and, of course, heartache.
Still not losing relevance and persuasive film, touching the fact that almost every scene is either unobtrusively emotionally rude or sadly metaphorical, although it does not give a unequivocally correct answer to the question posed, but does not leave the viewer with anything, telling a completely true story of a quite ordinary child. And like all heroes, the viewer himself has to decide for himself:
So which is better, thorns in the woods or roses in a cage?
We can say that the evening of May 4 was the public birth of the French direction in cinema. The official screening of the film "400 strokes" took place in Cannes, having learned about the amazing choice of the festival commission, François Truffaut's associate - Jean-Luc Godard expressed the first joy of victory:
For the first time, a youth film was officially chosen by the authorities to show the world the true face of French cinema. Today it turned out that we won. It is our films that go to Cannes to prove that France, in a cinematic sense, has a pretty face. It will be the same next year. Fifteen new, bold, sincere, clear, beautiful films will once again block the path of banal production. Even though we have won the battle, the war is not over.
In the underground temples of the avant-garde cinema, Truffaut forged a tape with actors who were not known, natural scenery and assistant friends, which endowed the picture with the power of authenticity close to documentary film. In addition to historical significance, the work has cultural value.
Antoine Duanel’s disturbing youth is the confession of the director and the double of each viewer. A twelve-year-old boy learns the truth about the world and his parents, the obvious adult lies and overpowering energy lead to sad discoveries.
François Truffaut created a cinema like a personal diary, compiled in the first person, which was a provocation of the portrait of young people. What are they thinking? What are they experiencing? What are their conclusions? What is the cause of their illness?
The call for a new one stoked enthusiasm, and other supporters of the New Wave began to strive for an image of everyday life, but reflected in a very personal style. After the premiere, the lead actor Jean-Pierre Leo enthusiastic viewers carried on their hands. Then, the actor will become the calling card of the director and an icon in the cinema.
"400 beats" is an insanely sincere and real film about how innocence is suffocated in a cruel world, and for many years, since the first viewing, I consider it a favorite, it is alive, and to this day, it has a heartbeat.
My recommendation: if you haven't seen "400 strokes" F. Truffaut, you haven’t seen the movie.
Evil does not walk along the streets under the drumbeat, evil lives among us, in our indifference to others, in our selfishness and lies, in our permission not to resist the course of things.
Only the love of God for us, or, if you will, the Miracle, leaves mankind, time after time, a chance to preserve the human form.
Our weakness, our blindness, our selfishness should have long ago returned the human race to the swamp of the “naturalness” of devouring one’s neighbor as food, as a competitor, but simply as a hindrance on the horizon. But time after time, Eternity finds refuge in the souls of even those who, by all the “natural laws” should feel the full right to think only of themselves, their belly and their revenge.
***
"Four Hundred Strikes" is a film in which, with genius without any discounts, and therefore with heartbreaking skill, we are all shown how the metastases of evil grow around the most tender human beings - around children - grow, grow ... but can not destroy them ... perhaps only yet - but can not.
Evil. We, in our comforting ideas, always want to think that evil is done by evildoers. That there are such special people who live and think - how to do evil now. We look for such villains around us, we show them in the movies, they write books about them. Of course, we demand “plausibility” – we demand that the villain have a logical motive, that he do his evil for profit, or, at worst, that we are convinced that the villain is the victim of his manic tendencies – his villainous inner structure – and therefore he is “quite logically” and commits his evil deeds. We can also be convinced by the scenario in which the villain is a victim of circumstances, and therefore we may even feel sorry for him a little.
With all the variety, one thing remains unchanged - we really want to believe that evil lives in villains, semi-villains, slightly villains, who themselves may well be victims of nature / circumstances, but who live their evil life and spoil the world around them.
The reality is that there is no mark on a person who will do evil the next moment. A person lives his ordinary life, he obeys some rules, he performs some duties, he indulges some of his weaknesses, he strives for some of his goals. But the course of his life leads him to the "i" development, in which on one side of the scale there is "only" a comfortable (and perhaps not comfortable, but quite familiar) course of his life or, even, "only" the need to make an effort to think about / control his upcoming words or actions, and on the other - an act / inaction that will have consequences in the life of another >>>>>>>>>. And this person (quite often pleasant for both his friends and his household) calmly acts / does not act in such a way that the life of this other turns into hell.
For example, the teacher at some point is concerned about suddenly seemed to him a terribly important thing – the purity of a piece of whitewash in the class that has insulted him and in one fell swoop destroys the timid sprout of interest in the literature of his student. And a little later finishes his last effort to obey the rules of school life with his laziness to compare the text of the book with the composition of the boy.
Or – a mother who is “tired” of difficult life (and in fact, does not love those who “for whom” and therefore does not understand why she does something for them), living the selfish dreams of youth, chatting endlessly inside herself and outside, suddenly “talking” about the “good deed” she once did because of which “now suffers” – the choice to give birth, not to have an abortion... – but “the untasks of youth”, she did not notice from the knowledge that her son had to live her whole life.
Or – a bored colleague of the stepfather, who just wants to get approval from the authorities, suddenly refuses to see that the boy put, not carried the machine into the office and one phone call turns the boy into an orphan. Or - after all, there was still a chance - the only adult who relates to the hero with tenderness - his stepfather - suddenly decides that it is better to teach the boy "as it should be" and thereby turns out to be the biggest sadist in this simple story.
And so, up to all these forks, through which evil comes into our world, all people as people ... live, laugh, mess with their problems, allow themselves small pleasures, suffer like everyone else. A person cannot help but make mistakes and live his life in such a way as not to cause other people suffering.
But does the title “evil man” still exist? There is. There are just those who “a little bit” more open the door to evil... those who in their little lives over and over again throw the poison of evil into the world around them and do it quietly – easily finding justification in the “laws of the world” . . . and quietly then sleeping – indifferent to all but themselves-loved. These are the villains - people as people... Can they be different, I hope so? If not, one can only hope for the Miracle that they will not intersect too often with other people on days when fates are decided.
P.S.
It wouldn’t be a great movie if it only had the black side. Nope. He, in fact (and this is Miracle), remains the anthem of freedom - the freedom to become and be human - the freedom of man not to succumb to evil.
Childhood is a beautiful easy time. Unfortunately, not always. Some are less fortunate, in their own skin these unfortunates experience the force of four hundred strokes, the bitterness of thirty-three misfortunes, the hardness of copper pipes, water and fire.
The film by François Truffaut, whose script was created with Marcel Mussi, tells the story of the difficult teenager Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Leo. Little Antoine is very disliked by the teacher, and the mother is indifferent to the feelings of her own child. It seems the whole world is against the boy. And how not to start lying, running away from home, stealing? What about a child who watches a movie like magic?
The only friend and ally of Antoine René, played by Patrick Aufay, helps the boy decide on the first steps along the curve path. However, the friendship of the little rebels is as strong as it can be in these years. Renee even tried to visit a friend where Antoine ended up. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. But thanks to a friend, the boy did not sleep on the street, learned the charms of the theater and at least for a while was able to feel like a carefree child. But friendship is not the main plot of the film.
The plot revolves around Antoine Doinel, who experiences indifference on the part of his relatives, cruelty up to crucifixion, complete misunderstanding of experiences. Antoine is only 12 and is growing up. And how do you feel when your own mother laughs and says, “We’ll send you to the colony?”
Antoine associates a freedom he never knew with the sea he never saw. In pictures and films, the sea is beautiful, fresh, alluring. So I want to buy a house somewhere on the beach and be completely free. To go where there will be no rag-stepfather, indifferent mother, cruel teacher. Only the sea, only freedom.
But is the sea as beautiful as we think it is? Antoine runs to the sea, flees from all indifferent and cruel people. No matter how much you run, you have a goal. But who knew that the sea was only water, from which nothing but soaked feet could be felt and received? The sea as life is a disappointment. And what to do now, when the sea, to which he so longed, literally at his feet?
For the years in which the film was shot, very good quality editing and shooting. In our time, not all films are shot so well.
The film “400 beats” at one time was nominated for “Oscar”, received two nominations from the British Academy, as well as two awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film is largely autobiographical, Truffaut captured some moments of his childhood, with which he could not come to terms. Perhaps it is thanks to this that the film acquires great liveliness and dynamism, becomes vital.
The film is dedicated to the memory of the French film critic and film theorist Andre Bazin, who died the day after the launch of the film in production.
“Four Hits” is a complex and in some places heavy film, not everyone will understand it. Someone will get to the point by watching the movie a few times, but the question is whether that person will want to watch the movie. Protracted moments and some ambiguity add depth to the film, but many people do not accept this, unfortunately.
Needless to say, “Four Hits” has almost the same number of positive and negative reviews? It is not worth it, because so many people – so many opinions. If someone sees his fate in Antoine, it will not be bad. If not, it's no surprise.
Don’t expect much from the movie. Moreover, do not expect the meaning presented on a platter. The meaning of this film everyone should take for themselves. The main thing is not to end up with wet feet.
The painting by François Truffaut “Four hundred beats” is one of those unique works of art that make an attempt to penetrate the consciousness of a child, understand his feelings, see the world through his eyes. There are few such works in world history. And all the more valuable. Most adults inevitably face what I think is a very cruel thing, the forgetting of childhood. And only a few, by some still unexplored miracle, manage to keep a child in themselves. And on his behalf to tell the world what children live, what happens in their minds and hearts.
François Truffaut is a rare artist who managed to do this. At the time of the creation of the film, he was only 27 years old (this is his debut film, for which he received the main prize of the Cannes Film Festival). The film is almost autobiographical, which is why it is so poignant. He is restrained on visual effects, not sweetening and face-to-face, but extremely honest with the viewer. The director shows life without embellishment, such as it is in reality, sometimes equally cruel and cynical to both an adult and a child. The main character of the picture twelve-year-old Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leo) is a difficult teenager, as we say about children who require more attention. At school, the teacher only scolds him and punishes him for his unhumility, at home no one is interested in his problems. He's on his own. His parents, his stepfather and his mother, still live their child or simply exist. They have the age-old excuse of most adults, "we're working, we're busy." Everyone does their own thing. They don't notice Antoine, they don't talk to him, they don't try to understand his bad behavior. Antoine’s parents do not even think that the child may have feelings and feelings. He's lonely. He does not find a place for himself anywhere because he does not feel necessary. Antoine tries his antics to attract the attention of his parents, unconsciously thinking that he can make them love themselves.
Adolescence is one of the most difficult and fragile in human life. A time when a child needs support and understanding. When the world seems hostile and against it. Antoine is confused, he does not feel loved and significant to his parents. He doesn’t realize it, but it’s the pain that drives him to make mistakes. Children, like adults, have a sense of self-worth. The child should be considered and respected as any adult. The Antoine family is different. He is scolded, scolded, punished, but no one loves him. That’s what he desperately needs. The boy does not trust adults because they do not keep their word. Once a child is deceived, an adult loses his trust forever.
Truffaut showed the adults in this film indifferent, aggressive, cold, gloomy and selfish. What struck me most about this story is that not one adult Antoine meets just tried to talk to him heart-to-heart, to understand what was going on in that little broken heart. Everyone just mechanically did their job: the teacher, police, social workers, psychologist, entrusting the child to others, and putting on it the stigma of “uneducable”.
Children do not know the rules of life, they act intuitively. Unlike adults, who are too dependent on the opinions of others, children do not think about what others will say about them, they are natural and direct.
Adults find it difficult to understand a child because they often forget that they were also children. In the consciousness of an adult, children's feelings, purity of perception of the world, enthusiasm and naivety of the child are erased. The child learns this world through play, through fun. That's why kids always play. They want adults to take their passions seriously. Antoine was not seen as a person by any adult. Adults wanted him to be like everyone else and deprived him of freedom and the opportunity to be himself.
The boy suffers from the fact that no one notices him. It seems like he's superfluous. He seeks to escape from a world where he is not understood, where they try to put him in a cage. He can only trust his high school friend Renee, who hides him in secret from his father. Rene's father is as indifferent and selfish an adult as Antoine's parents. He does not notice what his child does, where he goes and with whom he communicates. Children walk around the city like invisible.
“400 Blows” was shot almost in a documentary manner, without moralizing and wisdom. As Truffaut himself said, “He is neither sad nor cheerful.” It is about the man in the singular.” It seems that the author confesses before you, telling about his growing up.
Through the Antoine family, the director shows how pernicious lies are. In their family, everyone is indifferent to each other, but at the same time they hypocritically demand from each other the right actions. The husband is dissatisfied with his wife, she cheats on her husband, they strive, like most, for a good life. And against the background of all this, an unwanted child rejected by society. It amazes me how easy it is for people to abandon their children. The boy’s parents cold-bloodedly, hiding behind plausible excuses “we tried everything, but he does not understand anything...”, “the state should deal with his re-education” hand the child over to a correctional colony for minors. He is put in a police car with prostitutes and taken away from home.
What is going on in the heart of a broken child? These questions the director leaves open, as does the ending of the film. This is the most powerful moment in the picture. Antoine escapes from the colony, he runs at first timidly, looking around, are they running after him? It's picking up speed and rushing to the top. He's free, he's free. He runs to the sea and cannot stop. He runs to meet the future from his oppressive past. He's just running.
But where will this sea take him? This question froze on his face - frightened, nervous, enthusiastic, asking.
But before I explain why, I will give the director the five kopecks he owes: the film really managed to go down in the history of cinema thanks to its innovative editing and shooting method. Leo's acting is also good - he managed to play his less prosperous peer without curvatures and replays. François Truffaut after the premiere became one of the most famous directors of the “new wave”, which did not prevent him from subsequently engaging in narcissism in almost every film. This is also the case with the four strikes.
What's the problem? The director throughout the film tries to touch the viewer and cause sympathy, but if we look at what is happening on the screen with the most honest and impartial look, we understand that young Antoine needs anything but our pity. He does not make any attempts to change anything in his daily life, he is left to himself and does with his life what he wants: he wanted to have fun - ran away, quarreled with his parents - ran away, tired of sitting in a correctional camp - ran away.
Hard childhood? To be honest, I never managed to understand why his childhood was so “hard”. Indifferent parents? By no means – with his stepfather he has quite normal relations, his mother, indeed, without a king in her head, but after all, she is trying to find a common language with him. Did the teacher get it? You got him with your antics and your lies! Let’s analyze two episodes: in the first, Antoine is put in a corner for the fact that during the lesson he saw a picture with a woman in a corset. The boy stands and mentally dreams of punching the teacher sometime after the army for that beauty who “decayed from heaven.” In theory, here the viewer should have two feelings - a certain pride in Doinel and anger at the teacher, who immediately appears before us a prude and strangler of freedoms. But listen, he got caught, in fact, for doing in class not what you need, and only then for the girl. Or here's another thing: an excellent student brought a toy to class, and while he answers at the board, Antoine decided to have fun and broke it. No reason. Pure hooliganism. I want to know how the teacher likes it. After that moment, I finally stopped feeling sorry for the main character.
And one last thing. Listen to his interrogation at the correctional camp. Well, to hell with him, stealing, but if a boy at such a young age has already tried to shoot a girl, then I can’t still call him a child, like many viewers. Of course, when the main character is a teenager, and not a child, he seems to be no longer very sorry. It would be fine if “Four hundred beats” was an extra-production film, but even subsequent films show Antoine as selfish (“Antoine and Colette”), boring (“Stolen kisses”) and indifferent to the feelings of others (“Family hearth”) person. I don’t know what to cry about.
Society creates criminals. If you think carefully about this phrase, you can easily understand why the vast majority of criminals take this wrong path from an early age. Indifference, closeness, rudeness, narrow-mindedness of surrounding people form in the child's mind the only true deviant way of self-realization in this cold and dull world.
But society is in most cases the second culprit in destroying the child’s original pure and righteous mind. The first and main creator of anger and inferiority in the mind of the child is the family. Its influence on a young person is the most important link in the formation of his correct life path.
The negligent attitude of the main character of the film, as well as her briefly concealed betrayals to her husband, are inevitably postponed in the psyche of the boy. An unsatisfactory relationship with his mother can affect his future love relationships with the opposite sex, making them cautious and even cautious.
The stepfather tries to be kind to him, but soon the viewer is given to understand that the new husband of the mother could not completely replace the young father, who has long left the family.
The desire to escape from boring lessons led by a rude male teacher, and the inner need to start earning money as soon as possible seem to the main character a way of approaching his much-needed adulthood. Receiving money is carried out by illegal methods, which irreversibly entails crossing the line of permissible actions and, soon, leads the boy to the first imprisonment.
Even if a short-term restriction of freedom serves as a starting point on the road of rejection of laws adopted by society and the complete exclusion of normal life. An immature mind that has run away from home more than once, wandering and finding like him rejecters of the right life, like a sponge absorbs negative experience, becoming an incorrigible criminal person.
Beginning to live in a teenage correctional boarding school, where he was sent by his relatives, the hero opens up a picture of life that he has to accept. The cramped conditions, the irresistible desire to free oneself from the shackles of the four walls, the search for means of survival determine the existence of a person who was initially rejected by society and his family.
To run towards the unknown, to run away from people from relatives, from misunderstanding, indifference and rudeness becomes an exceptional way of self-expression of a young criminal.
The expression of the boy's face and his frightened eyes in the stopped frame at the end of the film seem to reflect his entire subsequent life path. To live in fear and feel like an outcast of this world.
Indifference and lack of participation in the life of the young mind, combined with rough school and social education, lead him to self-destruction through the implementation of illegal methods of survival in the selfish and gray world.
A very strange feeling remained after this film - a kind of bitter aftertaste. The director showed us a huge tragedy of a little man - the tragedy of a boy who was not needed by anyone and was abandoned by everyone. A child at the age of twelve is forced to seriously think about what he will do next. He cannot tolerate indifference to himself in the walls of his home and cannot tolerate despotism in school. An ordinary teenager, in love with the creations of Balzac, adoring cinema and looking at pictures of naked girls. Like a restless man, he wanders around Paris in order to find his place in life, because because of his parents, and especially because of his mother, he was deprived of it. A young soul turned out to be rejected.
In one of the episodes of the series “Doctor House”, the main character said that it is the parents who are responsible for what happens to their children, because they themselves disfigure them. And here François Truffaut showed the viewer this. No one thinks about what happens inside a boy who is forced to flee from his problems because he cannot solve them on his own. Everyone just shouts, swears, talks about his worthlessness, but nobody tries to help him. A child who sees everything and notices everything, very subtle and acutely senses what is happening. Antoine was broken by a life he never started. Probably that is why he was unable to live quietly afterwards - he was always running, losing his balance and trying to find something, but this "something" constantly eluded him.
There is nothing superfluous in this film, only the world shown through the eyes of a child deprived of childhood.
10 out of 10
Throughout the film, we often encounter the bewildered gaze of Antoine, a boy getting into trouble. Committing each new prank, he seems to apologize with all his appearance for it, feels awkward for the just committed offense, but with the same naturalness and ease gets into the next trouble. Antoine is not a cruel or spoiled, really troubled child. He's charmingly obnoxious. Children's sincerity and spontaneity, unusual lightness and carelessness, which imbued the whole film, give the conflict between parents and child not so obvious drama and intentionality.
At the beginning of the film, Antoine tries to behave decently, following the instructions of his mother, but his parents are largely indifferent to his efforts, they are too busy with their problems. Punishment is completely unchildish for crimes committed. In doing so, parents believe that this will resolve, first of all, the contradictions that have arisen in their lives. The little hero is stifled not by rules, norms of decency and convention, because he was ready to follow them to please and get a drop of attention of his parents. And if at first Antoine runs away aimlessly, just to get rid of the feelings of uselessness, coldness and selfishness of his parents, then at the end he has a certain hope, a dream-sea, which he has never seen. He's still willing to discover and explore the world, even though he's still looking at us just as confusedly. The picture is visually simple, the characters are alive, this is its unconditional charm and beauty.
When you grow up, there comes a period of life, you think everything is bad, the whole world seems to be against you, and the only way to escape from the “conspiracy” of adults is to flee. It’s so easy to escape without thinking about the consequences. Admit it, this must have happened to you. It is with this formula that François Truffaut is struck, close to everyone, by the sincerity and truthfulness invested in his debut “400 Blows”. To say that the film is not a complicated story about a teenager, will be true, but this is what he wins the heart, because you just need to be for the viewer honest, open, and understanding him.
Since the release of “400 beats” has been a lot of half a century, and the film is still touching really, and most importantly, natural. After seeing this, the final look of a tomboy so much like the man we were before is forever in my mind. Perhaps the little tomboy is reading this text about the movie right now, which he needs to watch immediately, and you could use it, too. Because it's beautiful.
The film reminds me of the kind of teacher and parent I am sometimes. In my classes, I allow myself to shout at some children and allow them to be treated rudely. This attitude does not go unnoticed by students. They can joke, make specially some annoying sounds to the whole class and amuse themselves with paper airplanes. Most children, of course, do not allow themselves to do this, but our school specially collects such classes consisting of hooligans. And this film painfully went through my moral complexes, for example, remorse that I do not prepare well for lessons or find myself indifferent to students. Children protest and take revenge through various antics for authoritarianism, boredom and arrogant attitude.
Admittedly, being a parent is no easier. There is a desire to send his child, annoyed by noise and stupid conversations, to kindergarten or school (in the film, the parents reached the penal colony). Especially for men, they often do not have enough empathy in dealing with the younger. When no one needs a child, vices begin to develop easily and quickly, which cannot be stopped independently due to semi-conscious age. Since such a person did not receive the necessary moral help from society at the initial stage of his development, he gives himself the right to respond with future crimes, which in fact happens.
10 out of 10
This film does not tear the heart, there are no situations that are filled with excessive cruelty, violence, suffering over the edge. But that’s the worst thing because it’s everyday. It's banal. It's normal. It's in every house. It's close. It's us. Nothing out of the ordinary. A child is not raped, tortured, or starved.
The teenager is fed, dressed, he has the key to the apartment, he goes to school. He has a mother and a stepfather who is not a stereotypical “male” who by nature hates the offspring of a stranger and tries to destroy him with all his might. He is just a weak man, of whom the majority (possibly a minority, because the rest are still whimper).
The hero of the film is not simple, but the most common situation. Without being married, my mother gave birth to a child. I wanted to get rid of the unwanted ballast, but my mom told her not to. If Mom needs him, let her raise him. But there was a correction of fate, my mother (grandmother) died.
Mother, beautiful, hungry for life, success. Feels connected by a child. Mom thinks the boy is the reason for her meager, boring life. For her (involuntarily, subconsciously), he is the cause of her unsuccessful life. She doesn't need him, she and her son are strangers. And especially he is not needed, a completely stranger, stepfather, who publicly tries to “educate” the guy, giving him a slap.
You can't judge people. Mom and stepfather are good people. No worse than us. It's just that the map came out.
In the middle of the film, a scene in a puppet theater is shown. Children 3.4.5 years old watching the show. Sincerity, authenticity, honesty of feelings. Burning eyes. What do you have to do with these angels to morally disfigure them?
- Where's the explanatory note? - But my mom. - What about your mom? - She's dead!
I read a short description of the film and realized I didn’t understand. Of course, it’s all about the family – “difficult” teenagers do not fall from the sky. Negligent parents, an embittered teacher who remembers about humanity only when a student "mother dies" - here's Antoine's golden pen. Remember the expression, they say, “a child is a blank sheet of paper”? this idea was prompted by a scene in a puppet theater.
What mother doesn't love her child? At first I thought his mother was a radish, not a good person, but after she grabbed him, I began to worry about him - well, you can be a good mother, which is like this.
And, of course, finding yourself in adolescence. Before you all roads (that is, everything, because at twelve years old it is not too late to take the path of “true” (I put the true in quotation marks, because the devil will break his leg what it means).
The last few minutes of the movie drove me crazy. Long, long way - there is no end, but the unknown is enough.
For the French landscapes, streets and paved road special thanks.
9 out of 10
To say I liked the movie is like saying nothing. The movie shocked me. I have watched it twice in a row and I am still impressed with it.
The film begins with the wonderful music of Jean Constantin. It is all about anxiety, tension and love for the beautiful city that we immediately recognize. Some magical black and white landscapes, lace of bare trees and a tower behind a row of Parisian houses. We are immersed in this shrill atmosphere. But we will not see the usual Parisian symbols. Montmartre, Sacre Coeur and Plaza Pigalle. Antoine's almost impoverished apartment, spit-up staircases, squalid classrooms and equally squalid and boring French lessons! Even the apartment of Antoine's friend, whose parents are rich, dirty and unkempt. But this is Paris, even after the war. The lights of shops, movies, carousels, games - everything beckons to itself. To be part of this world, you have to lie and twist. Everyone lies: parents, husbands, wives, children. Truffaut tells us that children accept the rules of the game. Antoine's mother cheats on her husband, Antoine's friend hides her mother's drinking, Antoine tells his friend that everyone is stealing money from their parents. But the director still gives us hope. The soul of a child is drawn to truth, to sincerity, to beauty. The children Truffaut shot in the puppet theater. It's an amazing scene. These little French people are so worried about Little Red Riding Hood that the director’s position becomes clear: pay attention to the children, see how lively and sincere they are. Start talking to them and get them interested. Antoine is curious and kind. What a joy he reads Balzac!
Jean-Pierre Leo as Antoine is not just persuasive, he is organic, as only children and animals can be. It’s amazing to talk to a psychologist. In this scene, a lot is revealed in his character. He is already a part of this world where there are prostitutes, abandoned children and single mothers. I advise everyone to look at the samples of small actors that have survived on film. It becomes clear that Leo is playing himself.
A lot has been written about the finale. The sea is a dream, a symbol of freedom. That's right, but I got another thought. Antoine has nowhere else to run, the sea is ahead. So he turned back and looked us straight in the eye.
The second time I watched the movie was with my sixteen-year-old son. His reaction was unexpected. He really liked the movie. He wondered for a long time why in modern cinema so little attention is paid to the plot and so much external effects. This story, told by Truffaut 55 years ago, struck him more than many contemporary paintings.
François Truffaut a representative of the new French wave, a synephile and simply a "high school", an educated young director, obsessed with cinema - that's who he appears to us in his first full-length debut. The film is dedicated to Andre Bazin - a mentor, a spiritual teacher before whom he worshipped and whom he idolized. The first full-length film from Francois Truffaut, who gained worldwide fame and earned the title of one of the most powerful beginnings of the career of a film director, and it is pointless to argue.
A very subtle, soulful, concise, refined, sparkling, attractive black and white film about the difficult fate of “childhood”. The film is imbued with love for the main character, for the city in which he lives, for each frame shown to us - the audience. Very emotional, spiritual work of the director and all participants of the film process.
A film that does not let go of the focus of the viewer’s gaze for a second, and gives him so much emotion and experience that enough with more than enough, and the film will not go out of his mind for a long time. So many events and actions are right and wrong, but most importantly real, life, which really affect the fate of the characters of the film.
The film is about the simple fate of an ordinary boy who lacks the love and attention of his family, primarily his mother and father. The author does not give a single answer: why it happened, why it happened, but one of the main ideas - "Parents spend more time with children ", educate them, do not leave them to their fate, give them all your love and tender warmth of motherly and fatherly feelings, do not let everything take its course, love your child, try to understand his feelings and emotions. Naturally, if all this is present in your resume of the parent, not the fact that the child will not grow a fool, but you will minimize the chances of such an event.
Of course, the film is not only about this, the film is in many ways autobiographical and there are many other themes in it that need to be seen in the film, to see behind them and to try to project on yourself and to try to understand at least some of them. I thank the director for such a modest opportunity.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Fantastic atmosphere, beautifully shown favorite city of the author, shown really through the eyes of a child. Great music gives a special tone and originality to the film. Great actors, live, real, professional acting.
Phenomenal, powerful, funny, heartwarming, exquisite first feature film from a real classic of French and subsequently world cinema François Truffaut. It remains only to see.
Every adult person experiences the so-called transition periods in his life and not even one, but especially difficult and therefore memorable - this is adolescence, the time of growing up, rebirth from a child to an adult with the inevitable need to socialize and acquire one or another status. At this time, the child already feels like an adult, but, having no life experience, constantly makes mistakes and this is normal, but how else can you learn anything? Parents, as if they never were children, hurry to put a label on their child, thereby justifying their own negligence, leaving it to themselves, because he is uncontrollable, or even completely stupid, how can he be corrected? As a result, the whole educational process is reduced to pokes and screams. In one way or another, everyone went through this and therefore this film found and finds a lively response in the souls of millions of viewers, because here the life realities are shown without embellishment on the example of 14-year-old Antoine Doinel, who lived in a small apartment with his mother, busy with her personal life and stepfather, in general, a good person, for whom his small business is in the first place. Parents were rarely interested in their son’s business. The main question for them is whether he took out the garbage. The fruits of such education ripened very soon. Antoine, starting with lies, came to a crime, albeit a small one, and his parents, as if they were just waiting for him, easily shifted the care of him to the state. How the state deals with children is perfectly illustrated by the example of teachers. The school in their face is designed to break individuality, combing everyone under one comb. Alas, fortunately, this is not always successful, the spirit of freedom has been preserved in Antoine, especially vividly and symbolically shown in the final scene.
François Truffaut shot the picture at the age of 27 based on a script he co-wrote with Marcel Mussi. Although there is a lot of personal in it, it should hardly be considered autobiographical - it is rather a collective image of children born during the war and forced to live in the difficult conditions of post-war France. Truffaut himself said that a strong influence on his vision of the main character had the performer of the role of Antoine Doinel - Jean Pierre Leo, becoming his actual co-author. Truffaut treated this character like a younger brother. Of course, the author was one of the prototypes of his hero, there was one of Antoine's best friend - René Beger in the face of a close friend of the director in the life of Robert Laschenet. As a child, François did not know his father and as the main character grew up with his stepfather, he had trouble with the law. Interestingly, the paternal blood made itself felt when choosing a wife from several possible candidates. The calculation was true and the young, but already toothy film critic found not only his wife, but also a rich father-in-law, who became the producer of his first big picture, turning him from a theorist into one of the fathers-creators of the French new wave. François Truffaut’s friend and collaborator Jean Luc Godard later called it “the most freedom-loving film in the world.” Although the final of the picture remained open, but it seems to be a finished work, nevertheless, the author later returned to his favorite hero, growing up with him for 20 years, shooting a whole series of films that became a pentalogy about Antoine Doinel.
Just a few words about acting. All roles, except for the main one, are well worked out, but they are purely auxiliary. The main role is excellent.
This picture once again makes you think about your children. Perhaps parents too high raised the bar of requirements for the child. Remember that few people were angels in the flesh, let alone nerds, but this did not prevent, but rather helped to adapt to new conditions. Maybe we should give the child a little more freedom, rather than painting his life according to a script ripened in the parents' heads? That’s the kind of serious thoughts this picture suggests, because it’s a masterpiece.
10 out of 10
P.s. Here comes the kid back from school.
- Come here, you monster. Give me the diary and grab the belt.
12 years - age of fracture: what should I be? what will I do?
I'm 17 years old and I still don't feel like I answered that question correctly. You still can't.
You're doing the wrong thing, but you've been pushed to do it. You're a smart kid...
What struck me most about the film was the French school: harsh and ruthless. It's too difficult. Teachers just think you're shit and they make you nervous. But what can you, your parents, your friends do?
There is no hope... What will you become? What are your chances?
And nobody wants you... Are you desperate, Antoine?
In search of a strawberry glade or an escape to lost happiness.
Late at night
The trees are on the road,
undercover
It takes a long time to travel,
Every night they go on the road,
It is rooted in the ground.
Where are they going?
They don’t know or want to know.
Leave is the desire of their whole lives.
And tonight.
The trees are on the road,
Secretly, trembling in their hands, going on the road. (Jun Takami)
In the crowd, of course, safer, do as everyone else, be a ram and a safe existence on the farm is ensured. But Antoine’s intention not to be like everyone else makes him an outcast capable of performing an extraordinary act. So where does the new come from? From despair, alienation and loneliness, when a person realizes that he has nothing to lose, he begins to live for his pleasure, here and now! It seems to me that only those who are able to break down (the herd), leave the barracks, the structure, the organization, united by common goals and values, have a chance to revive and find their own native goals. And such a hero is our boy who escaped from the farm. He does not want to be a pet, he is a savage, an ugly duckling who listens to the voice of his soul. And in the last shot in his eyes, you see seemingly incompatible things, hope and despair. But I believe that from the ever-doubting outcast will grow a noble swan, a confident star and a bright individuality.