The 400 blows
François Truffaut





When one watches the 400 Blows for the first time one cannot recognize a clear plot or think to where the succession of actions is heading. The pace of the movie is slow, with many scenes that seem irrelevant to the plot, such as the image of the mother looking at herself in the mirror, or the two women talking in the street.
The main character, Antoine Doinel, is surrounded by problems: he experiences difficulties at school, starting from the first scene where he gets introduced by the punishment. The moment he gets home he start doing his deeds whether it is putting coal in the fireplace, preparing the table for dinner or preparing the punishment that the teacher assigned to him. During all this time he is alone at home; the moment his mother enters she acts cold and barely answers his salutes, few moments later she mentions unfairly his bad grades. In the first minutes of the movie her sentences are composes of orders and criticism.
In the middle of the movie after several mischief the relation with his parents seem to get better and better specially with his mother who tries to win him back, showing her love and tires to encourage him to improve his grades by offering him money. Through to movie, money, love (in its different forms), and friendship have an important role. The world both of the adults and the kids seem to turn around money and sexuality. But one must take into account the friendship of his friend René that is always with him even during his mischief, gives him a shelter, and comes to visit him in the detention center.
It is shown and mentioned several times the importance of cinema for Doinel; he passes by the cinema, he watches movies and a puppet show, he goes with his parents to the cinema, his mother mentions to the judge the he likes to watch movies above everything; nothing seem to interest him but cinema and, at a moment, literature.
All the adults in the movie represent authority seeking authority; the parents, the teachers, the officers, the guards in the detention center and even the priest they go by on the stairs. The adults seem to form a group on one hand and the children on the other.
The moment after they have been expelled, although it was originally for a good intention and misinterpreted by the teacher; they talk, rather on an adult ton, about their future and there is mentioned the sea. Which after the escape from the detention the sea symbolizes liberation, escape, and limits. Limits because the moment he reaches the water he stops and the camera zooms and freezes on his face.