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400 BLOWS(1959)

Today's movie (NYTimesBest1000): Francois Truffaut's first long film; beginning of the "Antoine Doinel" series; said to be autobiographical; coming of age in a troubled family; beautiful, surprising and a rock your socks off ending. It seems real and true throughout and carries a story without a lot of gobbldegook; show don't tell. It is hard to put oneself into the experience of seeing this film for the first time. The NYTimes Bosley Crowther review is as fresh and alive as we can try to be in watching the film. It is not hard to see how the 'new wave' hit the beach.

There does not seem to be a lot more to say. We didn't figure out what the 400 blows were. This is one of those 'intellectual' questions that I have always been afraid to ask for fear that I was missing some obvious point that everyone else knew the answer to. Click to the right and email if you know.

I gave it a 4 out of Netflix5.

I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in between.
Francois Truffaut