Literary review of The 400 Blows

Borgeson 1
Roger Borgeson
Mrs. West
Enriched English 10
10 October 2007
The 400 Blows
A Literary Review
The film The 400 Blows, directed, and produced by Francois Truffaut is an exceptional memoir that takes place in France during the late 1950’s. I think the film is an interesting point of view on the life of a rebellious French boy. The film captures only a small portion of Antoine’s childhood but it reveals a lot about his character. The film also uncovers the struggles Antoine has with his parents. Over all I believe that the techniques the memoir uses are very effective at capturing the audience’s attention.
The literary aspects in this film were excellent. The plot and themes stood out to me as the best literary aspects of this film. The plot is engaging and it keeps the viewer interested. Antoine is constantly getting in trouble and getting into mischief but the plot also has a deeper side. The memoir reveals Antoine’s many personal struggles with his parents. Antoine has a very rough relationship with his mom and the film conveys this nicely. The reason their relationship is in such bad shape could be because Antoine is very rebellious. The theme of rebellion runs deep in the film. Rebellion is shown through Antoine’s actions; he is always getting in trouble and running away. One key example is when Antoine steals a type writer. This is a good example because he knows that stealing is bad but he still does it to rebel against the restrictions of his parents and society.
I believe the film does a great job with dramatic aspects. All of the actors fit their parts extremely well. In general I would say the casting choices are exceptional and all of the actors look their parts too. The best actor is Jean-Pierre Leaud who plays Antoine Doinel. He is the perfect actor for a little rebellious boy. The next best actor is Claire Maurier who plays Gilberte Doinel. She is able to show a bitter detachment towards Antoine that is very convincing. Also a very attractive and independent woman like her would not want to be stuck in a small apartment raising a juvenile son. The third best actor is Guy Decomble who plays the French teacher. He is extremely mean and does not tolerate any disrespect from his students. He is also caring and understanding when Antoine first told him his mother died. Another dramatic aspect used is lighting there were a lot of scenes that are dark and dreary. This represents the dark times Antoine is experiencing. Near the end of the movie when Antoine runs to the ocean and when he ditches school it was much lighter because he was free.
The cinematic aspects are done very well in the film The 400 Blows. The music portrays the emotion of the actors in each scene. It also is enjoyable to listen to. The camera movement and the photography are interesting. There is a very long tracking shot at the end of Antoine running. I like this effect because it represents his long journey to freedom and it feels like the viewer is running along side him. Medium shots and low camera angle are two photography techniques used in the film. My favorite is the low angle shots because it makes an intimidating figure seem even more menacing. The editing is also done well I never noticed when the scene changes. The technique called cut is used so when one scene ended the next scene immediately appears. I believe this is the best way of editing because it does not interrupt the movie.
The 400 Blows and Black Boy are similar in many ways but they are also different. One similarity is that both are memoirs of young men struggling to make it on their own. Also both boys tend to get in a lot of trouble like when Antoine lies about his mom dying and Richard burns down his house. Lastly they both have a bad relationship with their fathers. There are also many differences in these two memoirs. One of the main themes of Black Boy is racism there is no aspect of racism in The 400 Blows. A second difference is the two memoirs take place in different continents almost fifty years apart. Lastly when Antoine would be considered wealthy compared to Richard, Richard rarely had enough to eat or to go to school. These are a few of many similarities and differences in the memoirs The 400 Blows and Black Boy.
I would recommend this movie for a nice night out or if it was on television I would defiantly recommend it as a nice Sunday night movie. A few reasons I would recommend this movie is because of its fantastic literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects. The main reason I would recommend this film is the literary aspects. I enjoyed the literary aspects especially the plot it really kept me interested. The themes were also good and portrayed a believable story of Antoine’s childhood. Two other reasons I would recommend this movie is because of the dramatic and cinematic aspects. The casting is done well and the actors do an excellent job and the photography and editing is excellent for an older movie. These are a few reasons why I would recommend the film The 400 Blows.