the 400 Blows

I have a ton of DVDs that I've been meaning to re-watch, but I always get side-tracked by Netflix. I'm going to make it through a lot of those DVDs in 2013. I started by revisiting the 400 Blows.

It's a ballsy bloody move as a Director to shoot your debut film and hang it on the shoulders of school kids. But that's what Truffaut did and "ballsy bloody moves" were the cornerstone of the Nouvelle Vague. So I guess it makes perfect bloody sense after all.

It always blows my mind how intellectual young French kids seem to be in movies. They might be twelve years old or whatever, but they're always going on about Balzac, the politics in Indo-Chine, socialism, or some other aspect of philosophy or literature. Maybe that's just what they were like in the 60's. Now they're probably just playing video games on their iPods or whatever.

Anyway, the child actors don't let you down in this one. Just like Louise Malle or Godard, Truffaut's put together a great cast that can really carry the weight of the mostly non-events that populate this narrative. It's not REALLY about anything in particular plot-wise. It's more theme driven, I would say. It's about being a kid, dysfunctional families, nurture, education, attitudes towards crime and punishment. It's real life. It doesn't need a dramatic turning-point to anchor everything. It's just real life. I definitely think Truffaut was borrowing a page from the Italian neo-realists and British kitchen sink dramatists when he penned the 400 Blows. Then as he started creating more films, he started putting his own idiosyncratic twists and styles into the films. It's a fucking great start, though. Definitely one of his best. But honestly, if you put it up against Breathless or Elevator to the Gallows (debuts from Godard and Malle), then it comes in third. Just saying. Elevator and Breathless are actually my favorites from their respective auteurs.

Anyway, this film is Essential.