The famous French new wave director Francois Truffaut filmed “The 400 Blows” in 1959, which brought him an international reputation. This is a film that reflects young people’s problems. The protagonist, the little boy Antoine Doinel, embarked on a rebellious path because he couldn’t stand the pressure of school, family and society to find his own freedom.

In the 1950s, after the victory over fascism, the world was immersed in reflection, which led to a left-leaning trend of thought. In the West, Western Europe represented a movement, which was triggered by a group of young people whose purpose was to go out and find their own jobs.

World movies have always been confrontation between two major factions, the American obedience films and the European rebellion films. In those years, this situation was extremely prominent. Due to the rebellious spirit of young students in Western Europe, many excellent films were produced during that period. These films break the rules and reflect the theme of personality, which is the representative of the New Wave. “The 400 Blows” produced by Truffaut in 1959 is one of the leading films of the New Wave.

The director Truffaut is a famous film theorist. He was originally an orphan who lived on the streets and slumbered, and was also imprisoned for juvenile offenders because of theft. Fortunately, a man named André Bazin took him out of him and raised him to grow up. In 1959 Truffaut filmed his first film, “The 400 Blows”. This film with obvious autobiographical nature is also a gift he gave to Bazin. “It is said that this film, which M. Truffaut has written, directed and produced, is autobiographical. That may well explain the feeling of intimate occurrence that is packed into all its candid scenes. ”Bosley Crowther wrote on The New York Times in 1959.

“The 400 Blows” is a film of life stream. It does not have a complete story frame. It only uses the protagonist’s next step as a clue to arouse the audience’s interest. The film tells the living conditions of a 12-year-old boy in school, family, wandering, and prison, and shows the rebellious mentality of young people. The happiest day of Antoine is the three periods of wandering, and the happiest moment for him is the moment he escaped from the prison. He saw a blue sky and the broad ocean. Although he is a little confused, the feeling of regaining freedom was very beautiful. Looking back to the stifling school, the incompetent teacher and the broken family, it seems to be a nightmare, of course, it may be the hell, a narrow world that destroys humanity and creativity. On the contrary, the space Antoine gained is vast, including the beautiful beach and the blue sky at the end of the movie. Even in his wandering life that is forced for various reasons, joy, curiosity, and self-confidence are never rare.

The most prominent feature of “The 400 Blows” is the use of shots. The film uses quite a lot of long shots, of course, this is inseparable from the protagonist’s genius performance. At the beginning of the film, the camera swept the streets of Paris. The scene here is to suggest where the protagonist wanders or leaves home, pointing out that the main plot of the film lies in the wandering life of the protagonist. At the end of the film, there was a famous long shot of the film, the boy running for several minutes. When we watch the movie, we will realize that the shot of the character’s movement uses many switching methods, but if you encounter such a long shot, you will ask that why should the director shoot the boy running for such a long time? At this point, the audience will realize that the meaning of running is not only the narration of the story, but also the ecstasy of the hero’s rush to freedom. Truffaut broke the audience’s natural way of thinking and forced them think differently, so this shot is a classic shot that can be written in history. Another long shot is more interesting. This shot is the teacher leading the students running on the streets of Paris. The children slipped away in a sneak peek group by group. This shot has little to do with Antoine’s story, and even can be called as a single shot, but it declares a state of life and has an objective representation of the environment. The lens application in this film seems to have reached a point of severity. For example, when expressing a father-son relationship, the characters are always included in one picture, and the parent-child relationship is always split-lens. The mother and the child never appear in one picture. In this way, the far-near relationship between the emotion of the characters is revealed. Many shots in one film have deep meanings about the plot, rather than simply asking for narratives. This is the true meaning of film art.

Roger Ebert said , “The cinema saved Francois Truffaut’s life, he said again and again. It took a delinquent student and gave him something to love, and with the encouragement of Bazin he became a critic and then made this film by his 27th birthday. If the New Wave marks the dividing point between classic and modern cinema (and many think it does), then Truffaut is likely the most beloved of modern directors — the one whose films resonated with the deepest, richest love of moviemaking.” I agree with him, Truffaut is very special and irreplaceable, and had a great impact on other New Wave directors.

In short, the film “The 400 Blows” is a classic in both content and shooting techniques. Even after 40 years, this film is still a very avant-garde work, enough to accompany the name of Truffaut putting together into history.