I wonder what has been written about that. Another important element of the French New Wave is the idea of art narrative. Here is a link to an essay about one of my favourite films: https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Grand-Illusion-... Browland (author) from Georgia on February 09, 2012: Those scenes are indeed very poignant. In order for film to qualify as art, “there had to be an artist, a central consciousness whose vision is inscribed in the work” (Fabe 121). The famous French new wave director Francois Truffaut filmed “The 400 Blows” in 1959, which brought him an international reputation. Francois Truffaut, was one of these film critics who later became a film maker. Bordwell, David. His parents do their best to keep him in line but lack understanding. Analysis Of Francois Truffaut 's The 400 Blows ( 1959 ) And Jean Luc Godard 's Breathless ( 1960 ) 2650 Words11 Pages. Again, there is a documentary style in some of these scenes, as in the opening credits where a camera in a car makes tracking shots of the sights of Paris. Told through the eyes of Truffaut’s cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), THE 400 BLOWS sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. I teach The 400 Blows in both “Introduction to Film” and also “French New Wave”; in “Intro,” this film—accompanied by an excellent essay, “Youth and Entrapment in the French New Wave,” by Alastair Phillips—falls toward the semester’s end, between Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948) and the final screening of the semester, often Katia Lund’s and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God (2003). Berkeley: U of California P, 2004. An important aspect of film is storytelling. Throughout the film Truffaut’s directorial eye is attuned to telling details that provide emotional nuance to scenes of everyday life. In that respect, the French New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. New Wave directors “were never afraid to remind their audiences they were watching a film” (Wiegand 22). It will be interesting to track those films down. His mother hands him over to the authorities who send him to a reform school. To fully expound upon this incredibly influential period of filmmaking, Mitch and Michael focus their sights on two of the era’s most celebrated films, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. When Antoine lovingly recalls his favorite passage from Balzac for a school essay, he is expelled for plagiarism. He is … While most articles about movies place emphasis largely on narrative style and acting (and sometimes music), you have gone further by elaborating on the director's technique, which an indispensable part of any film. 774-782. I It is no accident that Antoine gets in trouble for stealing a typewriter (an unusual object for someone to steal in the first place). They were not merely writing movie reviews, but instead revolutionizing film criticism by treating film like an art form and directors as the artists (Wiegand 11). Money Glitch from Texas on April 05, 2010: Hhmmm interesting story, very well written. It emphasizes on The 400 Blows by Truffaut and discusses the relevant aspects of the New Wave movement. From here he makes another break for freedom, but, standing on the shore, looking out to sea, he finds himself alone with nowhere left to run to. Brittany Rowland from Woodstock, GA on April 06, 2010: shazwellyn from Great Britain on April 06, 2010: Wow... you are doing soooo well dear Browland - keep up the work! Certain scenes in The 400 Blows seem to have no other purpose than to show characters as they really are. Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) was released in 1959 and is one of the earliest films in the French New Wave. In that respect, the French New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. Asked to improvise his responses to the psychiatrist’s questions, Léaud speaks with language characteristic of a thirteen-year-old boy, even squirming and fidgeting with his hands in a realistic manner. Antoine and his parents go to see Jacques Rivette’s Paris Nous Appartient (Paris Belongs To Us) (Wiegand 59-60). Fabe, Marilyn. The film, shot in DyaliScope, stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. This was the birth of auteurshipin cinema; that is, watching Vertigo (1958) didn’t feel like a Paramount Studios film, but an Al… After they steal an alarm clock from a ladies’ room, it starts ringing as they take off down the street. Foreign films (and banned French films, such as the films of Jean Renoir) were allowed back into French cinemas for the public to view. ... Iran New Wave Analysis. The film The 400 Blows is a difficult movie to find the main idea. However, Antoine’s admiration for Balzac only gets him in trouble. Ed.
. Truffaut asked the questions himself, giving Leaud complete freedom to answer as he wished. Characters in art films are psychologically realistic, and unlike Hollywood characters, they may be ambiguous and have unclear motives for their decisions. This is a film that reflects young people’s problems. Luminaries such as Jean Cocteau praised the film highly and journalists were quick to associate it with the New Wave of films coming out of France. Some actors were non-professionals who improvised their lines. Later when he saw the rushes, he decided to retain the images of the boy alone and simply dub in the questions with the actresses voice. Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is a 13-year-old boy who keeps getting into trouble at school. In 1959, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows won him the award for best director at the Cannes Film Festival. French New Wave; Camera-stylo (Camera as pen) Auteur Theory; Long take; Mise-en-scene; Dubbing; Whip Pan; POV Shot; Long Take: A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot. I must see this movie and follow your hubs! Other elements of self-reflexive film are in-jokes and references to film. Join Now Log in Home Literature Essays The 400 Blows The 400 Blows Essays The 400 Blows and Juvenile Delinquency Annmicha Blugh College The 400 Blows. When Antoine helps his stepfather make dinner, for example, the bumbling man tries to connect with Antoine by asking him about school. When Antoine leaves a farewell letter explaining why he ran away, his parents crossly point out his spelling mistakes. John Conomos remarks that The 400 Blows “is one of the rare few films that represents childhood and its turbulent knife-edge ambiguous emotions and situations in a searching, intimate and tender way communicating to us collective emotional truths.” The 400 Blows stands as a model of the New Wave’s blending of realistic and artistic. The film’s most famous shot is the closing freeze-frame, in which the boy is caught with his back to the sea. The inability to communicate is yet another feature of art films (Bordwell 776). The visuals are complemented to great effect by Jean Constantin’s musical score with its sometimes jaunty, sometimes wistful air, reflecting Antoine’s changing fortunes. Francois Truffaut belongs to the French New Wave filmmakers’ generation which also researched Auteur Theory. The title 400 blows might be thought of covering the topic of corporal punishment of the domestic variety, but this film is really about one bad kid's (Antoine) tumble into a life reminiscent of hell and his desperate attempts of ascending back into a life of 'heaven'. The 400 Blows remains a prime example of the stylistic innovations of the French New Wave. In planning Les Quatre Cents Coups, Truffaut knew that the success or failure of the project depended largely on finding the right child actor to play young Antoine Doinel. LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS (The 400 Blows) - Francois Truffaut - Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is a 13-year-old boy who keeps getting into trouble at school. Antoine looking from the inside of a van as it is taking him away from Paris, Rene going away without being able to talk to Antoine and the last meeting between Antoine and his mother shown in the film. LOL Follow this link please and see the Hubnuggets. 1959. Antoine gets on a spinning ride that is strongly reminiscent of a zoetrope, a cylindrical device used in early motion pictures. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2005. As mentioned earlier, the scene of the schoolboys escaping from gym class is a high aerial shot; the audience feels as if they too are in the helicopter looking down on the Paris streets. Children break away in small groups until there are only two students following the oblivious jogging instructor. This statement certainly applies to Antoine, who seems to have no clear goal other than to react against the confining and oppressive adult forces in his life. Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" (1959) is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. Self-reflexivity is another quality of French New Wave films. Reconciliation with his parents seems to offer hope, until he’s caught red-handed in the act of stealing a typewriter. With film critic Alexandre Astruc’s idea of the “Camera Stylo” (Camera Pen), New Wave directors developed the auteur theory. In this, he is greatly assisted by cinematographer Henri Decae, whose experience working in documentaries gave his work a sense of realism that is well suited to the tone of this film. Even as they began directing films, they continued writing as critics. Unfortunately for Antoine, all his attempts to express himself in some literary fashion or another (with the shrine, the essay, and the typewriter) only lead to punishment. American filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and John Ford — who were seen as artists who used a camera to paint with — began influencing French filmmakers. This film analysis will delineate the diverse directorial decisions of The French New Wave cinema movement, and how they have been utilised and developed to challenge and subvert the typical Hollywood filmmaking conventions and techniques of the 1950s and 60s Hollywood cinema, in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959). Well-known New Wave directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, and Eric Rohmer wrote for film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, founded and edited by André Bazin (Fabe 120). Francois Truffaut, director of the film The 400 Blows (1959), concerns himself with the delinquent child abandoned by the education system and even the family. Francois Truffaut came on to the filmmaking scene during the French New Wave, and many critics categorize The 400 Blows as marking the start of the movement, though this is debated. The ambiguity of the style, characters, and the plot of the film highlights its status as an art narrative film. Tracy from San Francisco on April 27, 2010: Wonderful to read and watch. The French New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague, is among the most revolutionary film eras in the history of cinema. Leaud’s naturalistic, spontaneous performance is as true to life as acting gets; without at all trying, he ellicits great sympathy from the viewer. I see Truffaut used the character, Antoine Doinel, (with the same actor) in several more films over the next twenty years. Les Quatre Cents Coups was widely acclaimed on its release, winning numerous awards, including the Best Director Award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Browland (author) from Georgia on April 04, 2010: Michelle Simtoco from Cebu, Philippines on April 03, 2010: Congratulations for your 400 blows...ooopsie, I mean for your Hubnugget Nomination! A director became the “author” of a film, using the camera as a “pen” to tell the story. (Fabe 121). Just as Truffaut and his friends did as children, Antoine and René play hooky to go to the movies. His grandly successful debut 400 Blows had a total four million admissions in France. Francoise Truffaut The 400 Blows Analysis 1856 Words | 8 Pages. Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into … Posted on April 30, 2015 by Agota Vera. With Antoine trapped between the land and the sea with nowhere to go, The 400 Blows leaves the audience with an ambiguous ending. Scene Analysis. Conomos, John. French New Wave. Browland (author) from Georgia on February 10, 2012: Cinemafan, thanks for the compliment. Simultaneously both sad and defiant, it remains one of the most famous endings in film history. After being found out and punished for skipping classes, he runs away from home and spends a night on the streets. The French New Wave flourished between 1959 and 1963, “when certain historical, technological, and economic factors combined to give considerable influence to a number of young French filmmakers who had started out as film critics, theorists, and historians” (Fabe 120). The opening scene shows a traveling shot down a Parisian Street. With Antoine’s psychiatric interview, the interviewer is never seen. “The ArtCinema as a Mode of Film Practice.” Film Theory and Criticism. In The 400 Blows, Antoine and his friend René run through the streets of Paris with real Parisians walking by. New Wave directors rejected the traditional notion that the screenwriter is the author of the film. The French New Wave is perhaps the greatest advocation for the important of film criticism, giving the film industry a fine example of how critical analysis directly leads to the progression of the industry as a whole; after all, the entire movement was founded by critics. Not only is The 400 Blows deeply personal for Truffaut, a common element of many New Wave films, but it also displays many of the cinematic qualities of the film movement, such as the mix of realistic and artistic and the self-reflexivity. :). 19 Nov. 2007. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. It is not plagiarism but a tribute. My Life to Live (Vivre sa vie) (1962) Vivre Sa Vie - Trailer. Truffaut seems to make a point about New Wave directors’ penchant for borrowing from past directors they admire (Wiegand 22). Spurred as a result of major shifts in economic, social and technological norms within post-WW11 France, the New Wave conceived a renewed mode of expression across various … Les Quatre Cents Coups (400 Blows). This movement was defined by a variety of new stylistic choices such as a focus on character rather than plot, long shots, more true-to-life storytelling, and unique editing styles. To fully expound upon this incredibly influential period of filmmaking, Mitch and Michael focus their sights on two of the era’s most celebrated films, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. In the years to come, Leaud would play Doinel in five more films, becoming in the process the director’s screen alter ego. New Wave directors were as concerned with literature as they were film. “Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, or the Sea, Antoine, the Sea.” Senses of Cinema. The Historicism Theory. The 400 Blows exemplifies three key characteristics of the French New Wave through its inclusion of various innovative film techniques, through its illustration of a realistic and philosophical storyline, and through its utilization of an unconventional plot layout. Several sequences in the film have been much talked about in analysis of both Truffaut’s work and the originality of the New Wave. The movie 400 Blows can be studied as an example of French New Wave cinema, a movement that a group of film critics started in 1950s. Film Analysis Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows,1959) Francois Truffaut ... French New Wave director tends to reject the film tradition. A well written piece. The boys steal a picture of Harriet Andersson from Summer with Monika, another film about youths running away to have a good time. It is a pleasure to read about a movie that I have just watched and understand it further. That's an interesting comparison, too! Another delightful scene occurs with a high-angle overhead shot of the schoolchildren following their gym teacher down the Paris streets. Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claire Maurier. With traditional Hollywood films, directors “conceal the traces of the cinematic apparatus so as not to interfere with the spectator’s immersion in the fiction.” Truffaut takes a risk by exposing the artifice of the film medium, and the final shot still has the power to unsettle viewers (Fabe 131). Real passers-by stop and stare at the commotion. What parts specifically would you say reminded you of Victor Hugo? Truffaut captures the realities of childhood, both his and ours. For someone looking to explore the French New Wave … I wonder if anybody, while watching this movie, was reminded of Victor Hugo's novels at some points. Interrogation with the Therapist Scene. Wiegand, Chris. Browland (author) from Georgia on April 06, 2010: Thank you all for the encouragement! He creates the moments where Antoine runs away to the sea. By including this “extended sight gag,” Truffaut does his own breaking away from “the conventions of the tightly constructed plot-driven films of the conventional cinema” (Fabe 129). Francoise Truffaut’s 1959 film The 400 Blows (Les Quatre cents coups) was the first French New Wave film, as well an an incredibly sentimental autobiographical piece for the director as he reflected on … Largely autobiographical, it recounts the story of an adolescent boy “raising hell” (which explains the idiomatic French title Les Quatre Cents Coups) (Fabe 125). The paper focuses on a textual analysis of the film. That lies more than he tells the truth because why tell the truth when no one believes him. Such instances add an element of realism to The 400 Blows, as if a documentary camera happened to catch ordinary people in everyday situations. In a way, though, I prefer the way The 400 Blows ends, with the viewer just as unsure of Antoine's future as he is. The 400 Blows. Truffaut captures the spirit of the city as it provides the boys complete freedom and carefree happiness; they “run down endless tiers of steps, their arms extended, almost as if they were flying” (Fabe 127-8). It’s awfully hard for a movie to be more … Browland (author) from Georgia on February 07, 2012: Thanks for reading. Besides these in-jokes and cameos, The 400 Blows calls attention to elements of filmmaking. Today, it remains as moving and eloquent as ever, and is considered by many to be one of the best films ever made. Furthermore, auteurs leave their prints on their work, their “individual themes, psychological preoccupations, and stylistic practices” (Fabe 122). But, then, a cylindrical device used in early motion pictures calls attention elements... Him an international reputation to tell the truth when no one believes him who a. Zoetrope, a lot of time had passed since Hugo wrote his novels, and Maurier... 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