Friday, November 24, 2017

The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows is an award-winning 1959 French New Wave film directed by François Truffaut. A literal translation of the French title, it misses the point entirely and would be better translated in the spirit of the French idiom meaning "to raise hell" or sow wild oats. The movie centers on a boy who always gets in trouble in school and at home.

trailer:



The New York Times calls it "A Small Masterpiece". Senses of Cinema says, "This triumph effectively launched Truffaut, Léaud and the nouvelle vague onto the world stage."

Roger Ebert has this on his list of great movies, calling it "one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 100%.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like an moving story of a boy who is confused, troubled and unloved! Interesting to see all the awards and accolades it has received too 😁. Wishing you a Happy Friday and Weekend! J 😊
    p.s. I was thinking of you earlier, wondering if you have your Christmas decorations up yet? ...lol 😉. x

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    1. "confused, troubled and unloved" are perfect words. Nobody in his life understood him, and most of them didn't even seem to try :(

      I have entirely too many Christmas decorations, so we got a good start in one day but didn't finish. Surely we can finish over the week-end, right? lol

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  2. This sounds so familiar! I can rent the DVD on Neflix so I will watch it at some point. Even though subtitles aren't so easy for me anymore--if this is what I kind of remember it would be worth watching again. :)

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    1. I'm not sure I'll ever watch this one again... It's a great film, but hard to look at that poor boy's life. I do have hope at the end of the movie that he'll reach a better place in life by the time he's grown and has more control.

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    2. Hard to watch--yup! I think it is the one I saw many years ago. Runs away and finds just as mean, selfish people on the street?

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    3. He ends up being placed in an institution. His parents should've been horse-whipped :(

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