The 400 Blows (1959) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were released less then a decade apart and are very different movies. However they do share some similarities such as crime and fleeing from the law. I chose these films because 400 Blows is in a different language (with subtitles of course) and I though it would be interesting/different to watch it. And for Bonnie and Clyde I chose this film because my dad told me about them when I was younger so it sparked my interest.

The 400 Blows, directed by François Truffaut, is  a movie made in the French New Wave Era. In some scenes you can clearly see the Effie tower and the whole movie is in French with English subtitles. The movie is about a young boy who keeps getting in trouble, either with his parents or teacher. Unfortunately, he soon gets in to trouble with the law and has to spend time at an observation center for troubled youths. He later escapes and runs to the ocean, a place he has always wanted to see. And the movie ends in a close up freeze frame of his face. Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn, on the other hand was a true story about a criminal couple in the 30s during the Great Depression. Once they met they instantly fell for each other and slowly started to stir up trouble. They joined up with Clyde’s brother, his wife, and a car expert. Together they stole cars, robbed banks and stores, and killed people.

The 400 Blows was seen as a cinematic revolution in the French nouvelle vague or the New Wave. The New Wave  is a term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s.  It also presented a documentary style.  Filming techniques included discontinuous, fragmented editing, and long takes (which they did a lot in this movie). In the Black and Blue article it explains more of the French New Wave and how it relates to this movie and many others.  

About 50 years ago the Bonnie and Clyde film was released. It claimed to have brought American movies back again. In the Variety article it talks about how the gangster saga was a masterpiece  and reinvented Hollywood. But it did take a while for it to catch on. Many people didn’t want to see it because it was a film about the notorious couple back in the 30s. And other people thought it was going to be a helpless romance film, and man were they wrong. Bonnie and Clyde did gruesome things that made the news and were a wanted pair by the police during the great depression. And to make things worse they recruited other people to join them. Later they had a gang who later on died from gun wounds or turned them selves in.  The articles says that the director, Arthur Penn, and the other members who helped make the movie turned the dark true story into a wonderful piece of art.