The 400 Blows

“The 400 Blows,” directed by Francois Truffaut Les Mistons, who was the first person to create a semi-autobiographical film. In “The French New Wave”, an article by Philips explained how Truffaut shook the world after releasing this film and later became a founder of the “French New Wave”. In this film, Truffaut strays away from the usual filmmaking practices and introduces his own edits. The story is told from Antoine Doinel’s point of view which Truffaut newly introduced to the world because it was not usual to tell a story from one character’s perspective. The use of POV editing is what allows us to see and interpret things from Doinel’s point of view. I noticed how Truffaut took longer shots and included cuts that changed the viewers understanding of what the scene is trying to portray. In one scene, Doinel is being interviewed by a detective and the camera only focuses on him the entire time. At certain points, the scene jump cuts to another shot of Doinel speaking which is meant to throw the viewer off. These cuts disrupt the continuity of the scene because they occur in the middle of Doinel’s conversation with the detective. Another scene that causes discontinuity is when Doinel runs down to the beach, reaches the shoreline, and stares into the camera with a confused look on his face. A freeze frame appears with a still image of Doinel’s face and the film ends, stirring up a lot of confusion and unanswered questions. This ruins the viewers expectations of an ending especially because of the long shots taken before this scene that created suspense as to where he is going. The ending forces the audience to decide what happens to Doinel after the beach and in the future. I can understand why this film had upset the viewers during Truffaut’s time but he turned out to be one of the most influential directors ever whose filmmaking practices are still used today.