It was perhaps a highly disadvantageous placement in the Janus list, in my opinion, to have The 400 Blows follow Forbidden Games. The two movies could not have elicited a more opposite response from me.

Unlike Paulette and Michel in Forbidden Games, The 400 Blows never made me care very much about Antoine. Sure, he had a selfish, cheating, manipulative mother who didn’t want him from the beginning, and he had difficulties in school, but beyond that I felt little sympathy for him.

Antoine’s step-father was fun. I especially liked the scene in which he is giving Antoine money and the logic he uses in reducing the amount asked for.

I also liked the scene, shot from the rooftop, in which the P.E. teacher is leading the class through the streets below, I assume for exercise, and unbeknownst to him, the students are peeling off from the back of the pack in small groups of two or three, at the end leaving only a handful marching behind. What a bunch of normally delinquent juveniles!

What was up with the three young children in the miniature stockades at the work camp/detention center?

And where were the 400 blows? I think I missed about 396 of them.

[After writing the above and reading the already-posted reviews:

1. Thanks for explaining the real meaning of “the 400 blows,” versus the literal translation. Makes a big difference.

2. Thanks for reminding me about Antoine setting the table. While I was watching that scene, I turned to my boyfriend and said, “You can sure tell he’s French. What other boys that age would know how to properly set a table?”

3. Thanks VERY much for reminding me about the children at the puppet show. How could I have forgotten that scene? It was gorgeous, seeing how caught up the kids were in the skit. Absolutely beautiful!

4. Thank you, overall, for the most excellent, informative, well-written and well-researched backgrounds on all these movies. It gives them much more meaning.]

My review, though, is going to take a different tact. I will tell you what it is and what it isn’t. It is NOT a Hollywood film.

First, the movie is a “coming of age” film about a young boy in Paris. He’s all of 12 or 13, just at that age where puberty hits. Girls become interesting. Life becomes important. The future is both bright and scary. Parents go from being intelligent beings that can do no wrong to blithering idiots who should be shunned.

In Hollywood “coming of age” films are usually about a young man having his first sexual experience.

Doniel, or Antoine (I was never quite sure of his name) is the young boy, struggling through school with a teacher who looks like he’d rather stick his tongue in a shredder than teach these blasted kids. Within moments he is in trouble and has to deal with being marginalized by said teacher (who tells him to sit in a corner).

When he gets home, Doniel/Antoine interacts with his parents. The boy, dutifully sets the table and gets the house ready for dinner, then his mother promptly yells at him because he forgot the flour. How many times have we, as parents, over looked the big picture and complain about the little things that don’t really matter?

Like Hollywood, Doniel/Antoine’s mother is smokin’ hot.

His father shows up. He’s some “gear-head” accountant or something who dreams of driving in the big race…at some point. Still, the boy has a good relationship with the ol’ man while the mother just puts up with the boy.

The next day Antoine decides to ditch school with a friend and go to the movies and play at some fun park and just kick back. Possibly due to the teacher’s constant berating of the boy.

While he’s out having a good time he sees his mother kissing another man.

In Hollywood, the boy would have gone to a whore house or a strip bar or a baseball game and end up in a parade or something.

When his parents show up, all hell is to pay for his lie and he’s sent home – he runs away from home and spends the night in an old print shop. Leaving a note that “things would be discussed.”

In Hollywood he would run away from home and join a street gang, or end up in the whore house, or form a really cool club for other kids.

The next day he goes BACK to school.

This would never happen in a Hollywood film.

When he goes back to school he makes up a story that is mother is dead (I didn’t say Antoine was very bright). This is the ONLY time the teacher shows any compassion for the boy. The parents show up, getting him in MORE trouble. But the mother takes a sweet turn with him, putting on the charm and implying that they can “have their little secrets.” He looks at her very dubiously. She also bribes him with $$$ if he does well on his next report.

In a Hollywood film, he will have hooked up with his girlfriend and gone to the country to get away from “the Man.” Or he would be a struggling dancer looking for that one shot to make it big.

Reading “Balzac,” Antoine gets inspired and puts Balzac’s poster up in a little shrine of some sort. He lights a candle and everyone plans a great night together. The problem? The candle catches the shrine on fire and the father is PISSED. How pissed? Threatening to send the boy to military school if he doesn’t shape up (and give him is “Michelin book”). But, even though the threat is hanging in air, they all – as a family – go to the movies and have a great time.

In Hollywood the mother would plead for her son to come back, but he would join a rock band.

Though the evening is a good one and everyone is happy (even with a little grab-ass going on), the story takes a turn for the dark as Antoine runs away again, living with a friend. He sure doesn’t want to go into the military school. He’d rather get a J.O.B.

In Hollywood, no coming of age kid wants a job.

But he gets arrested for stealing a typewriter from his father’s work. Now he’s done it, it’s the military school fer sure! His father even signs the paperwork!

In Hollywood, no coming of age kid steals a typewriter. Gun, maybe. Drugs, sure. 42″ High Def TV, you betcha. But a typewriter…uh, no.

For what was to me the most poignant moment of all, he gets thrown in jail and then, when the “girls” are arrested, he gets placed in an even smaller jail cell and Truffaut’s POV shots from the bars of the small jail cell really make you feel like you’re trapped with the boy. This is the losing virginity moment in this “coming of age” tale, he’s not going to be the cute little typewriter stealing ragamuffin after this!

In Hollywood he doesn’t go to jail, or if he does, he kicks everyone’s ass. And then dances.

Sent to “Juvie” the boy escapes during a soccer game and goes to where he’s wanted to go, the ocean. And the final shot…wow. Desperate, scared, alone, afraid. All in a still shot. Bee-you-tee-ful.

In Hollywood he wins the dance contest money, pays back ol’ Mr. Gower, falls in love with the proper girl, parents forgive him and he lives happily ever after.

There ain’t none of that happily ever after shit in “The 400 Blows.”

What I liked:

First and foremost, the performance of the boy is spot on. He does a GREAT job. He really carries the film on his small shoulders.

The other cast members were very good in their roles. Yes, some of the other kids played it a bit too forcefully or cloying but it could have been worse.

Truffaut’s filmming and the B&W film are also perfect. Certainly some shots go a little long and the pacing sometimes lags, but all-in-all for his debut, Truffaut did a fantastic job.

What I didn’t like:

What IS it with teachers like this? They’re all pretty one-dimensional. Granted, I’m not expecting “Mr. Holland’s Opus” or “Dead Poet’s Society” but a bit of compassion or SOMETHING. Does every teacher in France hate their jobs and their students?

Bottom line:

Really enjoyed it a second time. Great film.