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The 400 Blows
Director: François Truffaut
I had not seen a Truffaut film before this, but I knew he had partially ushered in the French New Age and was an incredibly influential director. I can see why The 400 Blows is so praised and famous, because it totally blew me away. The camera work was beautiful, great acting, well developed characters, a really enigmatic message.
I'll start with rewatchability again. I'm not sure how re-watchable this film is, a couple days after seeing it. But I still think I would like to watch it again in the future, at least several times, because I knew I had missed some things while watching it. The movie I think relies itself a lot on facial expression, emotion on the face (such as the great last shot, zooming in on Antoine's confused face). And that makes it very hard to actually look at all those faces, and how they change and react (like the parents and the teacher) when you are reading subtitles. Perhaps next time I watch it I will focus not so much on the plot and characters as the intimate cinematography and acting.
The script was overall very good, and very relatable to real life. There are short, "realistic," conversations that reflect what an actual parent-child conversation might be like, and I think this propels the script. Some of the dialogue, too, is delightful and creative, but we see much of the good screenplay going not to Antoine but to the parents, and the teacher. The adults are often mocked as the "all-knowing," "all-talking" god figures, while being show to be hypocrites, and that propels the themes in the film.
I've never seen another movie like this; it's original. Movies about a youth's struggle - and often failure - to stay out of trouble are very rare and often hit-and-miss due to a perhaps "softening" of the plot that Hollywood is so famous for. Truffaut does not ever soften the plot, letting us know that there will be no plot twists in the story - or at least nothing big - and that for Antoine his final outcome almost seems like fate, destined to happen whether he tried to stop it or not.
The film is also very realistic, conveying deep emotional relationships - between Antoine and his parents. They often fight about grades, chores, and other moral things (like lying and stealing). Truffaut masterfully portrays the hypocrisy of his parents moral law by showing his mother turning around and cheating on her husband. When Antoine sees this, the mother (Claire) then begins to be very nice to him and "love" him. By the end, this love has faded and Claire no longer feels that this truth needs to covered up. The school scenes are also very realistic and often very entertaining.
The structure is like a gradual descent, but not necessarily very linear. We see Antoine in the beginning as unlucky more than anything, who stays out of trouble and has a decent parent relationship. His friend is the one who eventually begins to turn him away from "good" and begin lying, cheating, and essentially creating a new identity. Antoine's new identity is what the structure of the film mirrors, and at the end, his identity can be clearly seen as completely lost, swamped, "robbed" almost.
The acting is pretty good, in fact Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel is absolutely fantastic. Some of the other boy actors are a bit unconvincing, but that's hardly a complaint, as for their age they're spectacular. The parents are pretty good, and the teachers are marginal (a bit forced it feels like). Also, keep in mind, all of the acting I'm judging is from facial expressions and actions, because the words they say I don't understand and must read subtitles. Voice inflection and sentence structure can play a huge role in how good an actor is overall.
Now pacing can sometimes be fleshed in with structure, but I think they are two separate things. Traffaut often takes his time with pacing- for me, the flow, and sometimes I think that doesn't benefit the movie too well. Looking at Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, he deliberately adds slow pacing and continues that slow pacing until the end- this way his overall pace is adapted to and can be enjoyed by an engaged viewer. Traffaut's pacing in this film I think jumps between slow- and often too long or pointless- cuts, to quick, snappy scenes. This leaves the overall flow, I think, a bit shaky and that was one of my only criticisms of the film.
Camera work, from the opening Eiffel Tower shot, is beautiful, and really well done. I am no cinematography expert, but the camera it seems like follows not the plot but the emotions of a particular scene, and I think often that can detract from a good performance. But Traffaut makes it really convincing and engaging. One of the last scenes just shows Antoine running away from his camp. Every footstep was dubbed again because he wanted the camera to be continually following the boy... yes, it's following our protagonist, but if Traffaut wanted to follow the plot he would focus on a chase scene from one of the guards who is after the boy. Instead, we are given just the breathing and the footsteps, or perhaps of Antoine's "emotions," which is simply that he needs to run.
One of my only other complaints is once again the music, which I thought was slightly unsatisfying. I actually think much of the music could have been- and should have been- cut out, for a better "realism" effect. The music, mostly repeating one "cheerful" theme, is supposed to follow Antoine's descent into crime apparently. Instead, it comes across meandering interludes that add nothing to the plot or emotions of the story.
The 400 Blows was very well done, everything but a couple tweaks make it a brilliant film with a powerfully conveyed message about a boy's loss of direction in life, and the possible consequences.
Director: François Truffaut
I had not seen a Truffaut film before this, but I knew he had partially ushered in the French New Age and was an incredibly influential director. I can see why The 400 Blows is so praised and famous, because it totally blew me away. The camera work was beautiful, great acting, well developed characters, a really enigmatic message.
I'll start with rewatchability again. I'm not sure how re-watchable this film is, a couple days after seeing it. But I still think I would like to watch it again in the future, at least several times, because I knew I had missed some things while watching it. The movie I think relies itself a lot on facial expression, emotion on the face (such as the great last shot, zooming in on Antoine's confused face). And that makes it very hard to actually look at all those faces, and how they change and react (like the parents and the teacher) when you are reading subtitles. Perhaps next time I watch it I will focus not so much on the plot and characters as the intimate cinematography and acting.
The script was overall very good, and very relatable to real life. There are short, "realistic," conversations that reflect what an actual parent-child conversation might be like, and I think this propels the script. Some of the dialogue, too, is delightful and creative, but we see much of the good screenplay going not to Antoine but to the parents, and the teacher. The adults are often mocked as the "all-knowing," "all-talking" god figures, while being show to be hypocrites, and that propels the themes in the film.
I've never seen another movie like this; it's original. Movies about a youth's struggle - and often failure - to stay out of trouble are very rare and often hit-and-miss due to a perhaps "softening" of the plot that Hollywood is so famous for. Truffaut does not ever soften the plot, letting us know that there will be no plot twists in the story - or at least nothing big - and that for Antoine his final outcome almost seems like fate, destined to happen whether he tried to stop it or not.
The film is also very realistic, conveying deep emotional relationships - between Antoine and his parents. They often fight about grades, chores, and other moral things (like lying and stealing). Truffaut masterfully portrays the hypocrisy of his parents moral law by showing his mother turning around and cheating on her husband. When Antoine sees this, the mother (Claire) then begins to be very nice to him and "love" him. By the end, this love has faded and Claire no longer feels that this truth needs to covered up. The school scenes are also very realistic and often very entertaining.
The structure is like a gradual descent, but not necessarily very linear. We see Antoine in the beginning as unlucky more than anything, who stays out of trouble and has a decent parent relationship. His friend is the one who eventually begins to turn him away from "good" and begin lying, cheating, and essentially creating a new identity. Antoine's new identity is what the structure of the film mirrors, and at the end, his identity can be clearly seen as completely lost, swamped, "robbed" almost.
The acting is pretty good, in fact Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel is absolutely fantastic. Some of the other boy actors are a bit unconvincing, but that's hardly a complaint, as for their age they're spectacular. The parents are pretty good, and the teachers are marginal (a bit forced it feels like). Also, keep in mind, all of the acting I'm judging is from facial expressions and actions, because the words they say I don't understand and must read subtitles. Voice inflection and sentence structure can play a huge role in how good an actor is overall.
Now pacing can sometimes be fleshed in with structure, but I think they are two separate things. Traffaut often takes his time with pacing- for me, the flow, and sometimes I think that doesn't benefit the movie too well. Looking at Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, he deliberately adds slow pacing and continues that slow pacing until the end- this way his overall pace is adapted to and can be enjoyed by an engaged viewer. Traffaut's pacing in this film I think jumps between slow- and often too long or pointless- cuts, to quick, snappy scenes. This leaves the overall flow, I think, a bit shaky and that was one of my only criticisms of the film.
Camera work, from the opening Eiffel Tower shot, is beautiful, and really well done. I am no cinematography expert, but the camera it seems like follows not the plot but the emotions of a particular scene, and I think often that can detract from a good performance. But Traffaut makes it really convincing and engaging. One of the last scenes just shows Antoine running away from his camp. Every footstep was dubbed again because he wanted the camera to be continually following the boy... yes, it's following our protagonist, but if Traffaut wanted to follow the plot he would focus on a chase scene from one of the guards who is after the boy. Instead, we are given just the breathing and the footsteps, or perhaps of Antoine's "emotions," which is simply that he needs to run.
One of my only other complaints is once again the music, which I thought was slightly unsatisfying. I actually think much of the music could have been- and should have been- cut out, for a better "realism" effect. The music, mostly repeating one "cheerful" theme, is supposed to follow Antoine's descent into crime apparently. Instead, it comes across meandering interludes that add nothing to the plot or emotions of the story.
The 400 Blows was very well done, everything but a couple tweaks make it a brilliant film with a powerfully conveyed message about a boy's loss of direction in life, and the possible consequences.