The 400 Blows
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Antoine Doinel is a boy growing up in Paris whose home life offers him little support. His mother is absorbed in her own affairs and his stepfather takes scant interest in him, while at school he is treated as a problem to be disciplined rather than helped. His closest company is his friend René, with whom he drifts away from school and into minor trouble. After one of their schemes goes wrong, Antoine is drawn into the machinery of police and courts, and his conflicts with the adults around him deepen. His home life and his run-ins with authority push him toward running away and toward a long-held wish to see the sea.
The film is François Truffaut's second feature as director, following The Mischief Makers and preceding Shoot the Piano Player. Truffaut wrote, produced and directed it, and the cast is led by Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine, with Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay and Robert Beauvais among the credited performers.
Released in 1959 and running 99 minutes, it holds a rating of 8 out of 10 on IMDb from about 134,000 votes, a rating of 8 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 2,400 votes, and a critics' rating of 9.7 out of 10 from 72 reviews. The audience responses are strong; the critical response is considerably higher. The scale of the vote counts and the gap between the two kinds of rating indicate a film that has been watched and rated by a very large audience over many decades while remaining more admired by critics than viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léo got the role after responding to an advertisement; Truffaut cast him, struck by the physical resemblance to himself at the same age.
- It is usually said that this was Jean-Pierre Léaud’s first role in film. The 14-year-old boy ended up on the set after responding to an advertisement, and Truffaut cast him, struck by his resemblance to himself at the same tender age. However, Jean-Pierre already had some experience in film – he played a small role in Georges Lampin’s adventure film “Beware of the Tourists!” (1958).
- The French expression “faire les 400 coups” means “to behave outrageously, to violate moral norms.” Specifically, when referring to childish mischief or hooliganism. In Russian, this idiom is approximately equivalent to the expressions “walking disaster,” or “33 misfortunes.” The expression originates from the siege of Montauban by Louis XIII in 1621, when the French king ordered 400 cannon shots to be fired at the city (“400 coups de canon”), hoping to instill terror in the ranks of the Protestant defenders.
- François Truffaut's feature film debut.
- The film is dedicated to André Bazin.
- François Truffaut continued the story of Antoine Doinel in several more films, tracking his fate at different stages of life – in “Antoine and Colette” (1962), “Stolen Kisses” (1968), “Bed and Board” (1970), and “Love on the Run” (1979). And Jean-Pierre Léaud appeared with Truffaut two more times in the roles of other characters – in “Two English Girls and the Continent” (1971) and “American Night” (1973).
- When Antoine and René walk through the city, they pass a wall covered with posters and advertisements. One of the posters features Harriet Andersson in Ingmar Bergman’s “Summer with Monika” (1953). That film also tells the story of two young runaways.
- The film was shot in 46 days. Work began in November and continued with one day off in the first six weeks and three in the last two weeks until the end of December. Subsequently, the director would adopt a rule of making films in this way, using a “lightning strike” strategy.
- Director François Truffaut did not require the young actors to memorize their lines and encouraged improvisation.
- Among the considered titles for the film were: “Antoine’s Escape,” “Four Thursdays,” “Little Angry Ones,” “School of the Street,” “Wandering Life,” “Children of Paris,” “Little Idlers,” “Little Friends,” “Wild Foxes,” and “Little Soldiers.”
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