The 400 Blows
Les quatre cents coups
1959 · France · 99 min · 2.35:1 · B&W
Directed by François Truffaut
Introduction
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut, his first feature, with Jean-Pierre Léaud as thirteen-year-old Antoine Doinel. Antoine lives in Paris with his mother and stepfather, is punished repeatedly at school, and after skipping a day claims his mother has died. He and a schoolfriend later take a typewriter from the stepfather's office; unable to sell it, they are caught returning it, and Antoine is held at a police station and then sent to an observation centre for delinquent boys near the sea. In the closing sequence he runs from the centre to the shore, turns towards the camera, and the frame freezes. Truffaut had been a critic at Cahiers du Cinéma, and drew on his own adolescence. He received the award for Best Director at Cannes.
Titles
- Mainland China
- 四百击
- Hong Kong
- 四百擊
- Taiwan
- 四百擊
- English
- The 400 Blows
- Original
- Les quatre cents coups
Cast
- Jean-Pierre Léaudas Antoine Doinel