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The 400 Blows Details

1959 DVD Certificate PG.gif
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 5442 members

Antoine Doinel is branded a trouble maker at his school due to his problems at home... He finds comfort at the cinema where the world can offer more than his reality. French dialogue. Read more

Starring jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Georges Flamant, Guy Decomble
Director Francois Truffaut
Genres Drama, World Cinema

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The 400 Blows cover art

The 400 Blows

Antoine Doinel is branded a trouble maker at his school due to his problems at home... He finds comfort at the cinema where the world can offer more than his reality. French dialogue.

Starring jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Georges Flamant, Guy Decomble, Patrick Auffay
Director Francois Truffaut
Studio Cinema Club
Run time DVD: 1 hr 35 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Genres Drama, World Cinema
Language French
Subtitles English
Released DVD: 16 Dec 2002
Production year: 1959
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews of The 400 Blows

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  • 5 stars out of 5

    Former critic François Truffaut made his feature debut with this largely autobiographical drama. Made for a mere $75,000, it has echoes of Jean Vigo's Zéro de Conduite, although the influence of Jean Renoir and Italian neorealism is also evident. Introducing the character of Antoine Doinel (who would feature in another four Truffaut outings), the story paints a grimly authentic portrait of troubled adolescence, with 13-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud effortlessly conveying both mischief and vulnerability in the lead role. Packed with familiar New Wave faces, the film won Truffaut the best director's prize at Cannes and sent ripples around world cinema with its audacious freeze-frame finale.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • Most helpful member's review of The 400 Blows

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  • 27 out of 29 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Simple tale with existential undertones

    A beguiling and playful classic on the complexities of childhood and the simplicity of adulthood. Leaud plays a young tearaway who is more the victim of his own bad judgement than any maliciousness – at every turn he acts before thinking, and each time he is drawn closer to doom. The film is entertaining and joyous, the narrative straightforward, the music enchanting and involving: yet Truffaut’s message shines through, and as such 400 Blows is a masterpiece in the light-hearted but effective conveying of theme. The boy’s struggle to find happiness and make it through the day is a reflection of an adult need to find the meaning or purpose of life. Meanwhile the adults act childishly – behaving by arbitrary rules set by others, shirking responsibility and letting their intellects be easily overcome by their emotions. It is an adult world that Leaud refuses – not as a statement, but through his instinctive actions – to take his place in, and the final shot of Leaud running and running from the reform school in which he has been imprisoned is a vital affirmation of freedom, self-determination, individuality and a very basic, animal humanity. Leaud’s character is a hero because he so unceasingly struggles to be free, to be himself.

      • gordoncrombie from Manchester
      • Posted 24 Feb 2004 10:45

  • Most recent members' review of The 400 Blows

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  • 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Truffaut's brilliance

    THis is a rather brilliant film, and I would rank it as Truffaut's second best after Jules et Jim. The story is of a young boy, who owing to the suffering he experiences at home, turns to crime. His parents, unable to deal with him effectively, hand him over to the police. His situation gets from bad to worse.

    THis is in many ways similar to Jules et Jim, perhaps more than any other Truffaut film, though it perhaps lacks that tenderness which is such an inherent part of the script of the latter. It is nevertheless deeply moving. Rather reminiscent of Au bout de souffle.

      • A customer from Newcastle, England
      • Posted 18 Feb 2005 08:57

  • News and features

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    Twilight

    Let the Right One In

    • 06 Apr 2009

    Film of the year so far! Imagine, say, My Life as a Dog, Ratcatcher, or even 400 Blows, one of those bittersweet portraits of lonely children bumping up against the hard knocks of parental neglect, abuse and poverty. Cross that kind of acute honesty and naturalism with an edgy near-the-knuckle horror movie – Near Dark, for instance, or Ringu. Now set this intriguing mutation in the suburbs of Stockholm during the depths of a Swedish winter. Let the Right One In is that movie, and it’ Read more

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Rating breakdown

5,442 Member ratings
  • 100
984
  • 90
710
  • 80
1,160
  • 70
883
  • 60
755
  • 50
399
  • 40
204
  • 30
143
  • 20
133
  • 10
71

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