As young Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) does mischief at the class room which grows in to greater extent of social mischief of crime in the latter part of the movie, I was taken back to my school days. I was a silent kid cornering myself to the last bench. Too afraid to do pranks and too confused to talk, a typical school kid but I have seen kids do the things what Antoine does in the movie. Ogling a semi nude picture and blaspheming the teacher is not unusual for a kid to do. Curiosity and too tight to be controlled drives those actions. As I suit myself to drench in those warm dried up memories of mine, “The 400 Blows” took me for a great surprise and left me rattled over the upbringing of a child. I thought I am going to witness a story telling of a troubled kid finding his way of life in a fairy tale story. I was left with astonishment at the end of it. The end of Antoine may teach a hard lesson of life.
The movie title does not actually properly translate the French title. The proper meaning of the title is “to raise hell” and what other can be so appropriate. They raise hell in and around the kid who is left to be confused. After a tough day at the school, he comes back home to be yelled and commanded by his mother constantly. His father is cheerful but he is inconsistent in his behaviour too. His house is cramped and sleeps in the corridor which starts and ends in the door. The family is a subtle torture emporium. It seems nothing much is happening here but the heat is felt. His mom definitely is being reminded by Antoine how much of a burden he is to her. She has cosmetics filled in her dressing table. Her youth is stopped by Antoine is her opinion. His father Julien Doinel (Albert Rémy) who gave the name to him appears as the asylum of fun and understanding father. But we see both the parents do not even looking for the kid when they receive a note left by Antoine saying he is leaving them. Even if it had happened previously, their reactions seem to be ordinary and in fact they are relaxed from the troubles Antoine usually creates by his mischief.
The movie takes us into the dark transforming world of Antoine. He lies, cheats and steals. There is no regret for his actions. At the same time he does not enjoy it too. He does enjoy roaming around the streets of Paris with his friend René (Patrick Auffay). When he does these wrong things in the course of the movie, he is numb as I observed. His instincts are conditioned in to his surroundings so much that the subtle nature of his actions amplifies day by day. He bunks the school as he was not able to complete his home work in the midst of consistent commands from his mother. While roaming in the streets he notices his mom in the middle of the road kissing some one who is not Julien. Both notice each other. We look forward for a dramatic exposure of the cheating of his mother as she is afraid of it too. It is clearly visible of her seeing Antoine as a baggage but also cannot tolerate when she learns that Antoine told his teacher the excuse for skipping school is the demise of her. She showers intended love. For Antoine, even that does not look genuine. His doubtful eyes and the sudden change in his mother’s behaviour riddle him.
Antoine actions are shocking. Even age does not stop us from thinking the unremorseful continuous lies of him. But we do not know his history and get a peek at it. All through his small tenure in his life, he had no one to care for. There were people at his home but invisible in front of him. His growth from a baby to a boy became a reminder for the adults of their responsibility which is least of their worries. When Antoine’s father takes him to the police, we are surprised but some where we feel this kid needs discipline desperately. For a moment, we take the side of the father without knowing the dreadful history of the Antoine. Things are not always as it seems.
The film during the times of 50s carries the message now too. The social structure has done one thing nice is to identify some ball park age for a kid to be declared on his own. Here the kid has a home with people bothered about his stay. They do not beat him. They do not yell at him. The judge during the session with Antoine’s mother says that her caring looks inconsistent. They were not there when the kid needed and when they had the ears; Antoine has grown impatient and hard to trust them. Director François Truffaut does a character study which shakes the parents. It wakes them up for the subtle lies and the inaccuracies their kid’s provide. What I liked about the movie is the concept of taking a mediocre family where simple problem for a kid becomes inattentiveness and subtle yelling to drive him to the wrong side of the equilibrium. It is even more troubling when we see the mother coming to the observation center where Antoine is put in to deliver her vengeance towards him. She does not scold but the same crooked subtle bitterness she spits on him is unsympathetic and cold.
I was not completely pulled in by the film but at the same time it affected me in a non-descriptive part of emotion. The content is far too ahead of time for the 50s. Not naming it as a classic by me does not lower it in any miniscule mass. Finally the symbolism of the boy running in the end is a nice touch of cinematic art. The camera work is unique during that near a minute run. The kid’s life got so messed up that his rest of the life is going to be a run. He can run till his energy and the age carries him. And when there is going to be an obstacle and the energy withered away, there is no one to turn or run. His life might be swept of by those waves or may be he turns inside his conscience to look into the brighter side of it. Maybe.
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