Movie- "The 400 Blows" -1959
Language- French
Director- Francois Traffuat
Runtime- 99 minutes
Awards- Cannes Film Festival: Best Director (winner)
British Academy of Film: Best British Film (nominee)
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Foreign Film (winner)
Academy of Motion Picture Arts: Best Original Screenplay (nominee)
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One may ask, "How does this film relate to the larger topic of film theory?". Right off the bat I want to mention the very last scene of the movie. It's a long continuous shot of Doniel running away from the detention camp to the ocean. Most films would use a montage to lapse the time and but in this film they followed him for several minutes of just running and this seems very different from any other movies one would see in the United States. Another thing to talk about would be the ideogram at the end of the final scene. The boy makes run a for the ocean and finally gets there running right to the waters edge. He finally looks into the camera and the movie ends as a still image. Early in the movie we learned how he never saw the ocean and wanted to go there one day. The final scene of him by the ocean represents an idea or concept to the viewer that he finally made to the ocean, but what now? The end leaves you with a lot to think about.
Let's relate some published articles to the screening. First one comes from the Chicago Sunday Times by Roger Ebert. He had something to say about the last scene of the movie which I found interesting,
"The film's famous final shot, a zoom in to a freeze frame, shows him looking directly into the camera. He has just run away from a house of detention, and is on the beach, caught between land and water, between past and future. It is the first time he has seen the sea."
According this article he relates the ideogram of the ocean and Doniel as him being "caught... between past and future". I saw the ideogram in that final scene and it seems as if author of this article caught onto as well which really helped to back up my claim.
The next article is from EBSCOhost from the Academic Search Premier is a movie review by David Sterritt. In the article he refers to the movie as a "master piece" and even says
"This said, it's ironic that Truffaut felt uneasy about some "experimental" touches... the tracking shot showing Antoine's flight from confinement, the unforgettable freeze-frame at the finale."
It seems as if I am not the only one who was impressed by the end of the movie. It was different and unexpected from what I usually think of a movie. The ending left the viewer with more questions than answers. Francois Truffaut wanted to leave and imprint in back our minds with this final scene, and I think he was really successful in doing so. It seems as if that is the most memorable scene for everyone.
My personal opinion I think this movie was ahead of it's time. Some of the humor seemed more modern day, brief periods of minor nudity, and there was even some bad language. In American films at the time I don't think they could even show a toilet bowl or a husband and wife sleeping in the same bed! For a 1959 film they could have filmed it in color. Now they could either have filmed in black and white intentionally or perhaps the technology just wasn't available in France during that time period. In the States color TV had already made an appearance in 1953 and wasn't available in Europe till 1960! (See article) Overall the movie had a lot of interesting scenes and was really able to keep me entertained and focused throughout, difficult for most movies to do from that time period. I would have to agree and say it's the best foreign I have ever watched and I really did enjoy it.
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