François Truffaut’s first feature is not only one of his best but also one of his most personal films as well. Much of the story of Antoine Doniel comes from Truffaut’s own childhood. Like Antoine, young François didn’t have the happiest childhood. For both of them their major escape was the movies. Both of them would often skip school to see movies. Both grew a love a literature outside of school. Still much of Antoine Doniel’s character also came from the actor who played him, Jean Perrie-Leud. Truffaut put an ad in the newspaper stating that he was looking for a 13 year old boy to play a lead in a film, with no more information than that and where to audition. Jean Perrie-Leud, skipped school and took a bus to the audition. Truffaut instantly felt a kinship with this kid and knew he would play the part. This young boy brought much to the character, including dialog for the psychiatric examination scene. He would go on to become one of the main actors of the French New Wave, including appearing in many of Truffaut’s films. The child actors who didn’t get the role played the other students in the classroom.
Tough Truffaut did much of the writing for The 400 Blows, he did have a co-writer. That co-writer was Marcel Mousey, who was at the time who at the time was working as a television writer. One of the reasons he was hired was because he was a former school teacher, and that experience would come in handy during the classroom scenes. Despite working with Francois on the script Marcel Mousey was not aware just how autobiographical the film was. François made sure that Antione was the focus of the film, because of this there are very few scenes in which Antione does not appear and even in these small scenes, he is the center of the conversation.
The 400 Blows is an incredible movie. The character of Antione becomes so real to us when we watch this film. We feel sorry for him, but in some ways kind of admire the kid as well. He is as close to a real kid as any kid character in a movie can be. Unlike many kids in movies, the film never goes out of its way to make him overly cute. Yet the movie also never makes him an unlikable Hellraiser. He is a tough kid, yet also very venerable. He is very smart but can also be naïve. He does some bad things, but is never a bad kid. These traits that are seemingly contradictory written down are not at all so on the screen. They make up one of the most real and believable characters in the history of cinema. Truffaut also makes this film feel so real by keeping it from being the depressing tragedy it could have been. Life is not just one tragic moment after another. In between the tragedy is joy and fun. There are moments of great humor in this movie. The most famous being a fantastic scene where a PE teacher having the kids run through the streets only to have them keep disappearing two at time until the teacher is all by himself. One of the most joyous scenes in the film involves Antione in a spinning wheel ride. After seeing some brutally tragic scene before this the contrast makes this down right cathartic. As well as a joy for the character this scene is also joyous for the filmmakers. Truffaut was completely in love with cinema and still had much of his youthful energy and enthusiasm towards making movies. This is the type of scene that many filmmakers would have left out or shot in a more conventional way. However here Truffaut is excited about breaking the rules and truly seeing what can be done with this great artform. This joy and youthful excitement completely overcomes us as we watch this scene. The scene also serves as one of Truffaut's many love letters to the movies in his films, as the way it is shot and designed reminds one of a zoetrope, one of the precursors to movies.
The 400 Blows was a huge hit and hailed as a master piece of cinema. The success of this film and the director’s closeness to it lead us to more Antione Doinel movies in the future.
-Michael J. Ruhland
