#41: The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows (Traffaut, 1959)

The 400 Blows is a very realistic, semiautobiographical film about a child growing up with no stable, loving adult authority figures. His teachers see him as a problem and his parents see him as a burden. In the past he's found he gets in trouble equally whether he follows the rules or not, and nobody believes him when he tells the truth. So, the rules don't matter to him, and when he breaks them he lies his ass off to avoid getting into trouble.

The trouble is, he's an incompetent liar. He skips school one day to go to an amusement park. The next day he comes in and says he missed school because his mother was dead. Another time he cheats on a school assignment by copying the writing of Balzac. Every lie he tells is doomed to failure, and every time he's caught in a lie his parents and teachers bite back worse and worse.

All the boy's actions throughout the film are misguided, but it's also clear his actions follow naturally from the logic of a ten year old who's been inconsistently parented and withheld support, common sense teaching and affection. All of the adults in the film blame all his actions on problems with his character, and punish him with draconian measures that alienate him further.

The film offers sharp criticism of the attitude of society toward troubled children as well as a strong psychological character study on a marginalized child.

Rating: **** / 5

71/101

Next: Last Year In Marienbad, Ikiru, Rashomon