Lit. Review

The movie “The 400 Blows” is a worthwhile sick time movie. It isn’t something I would see on a movie night, but it had its strong points. This movie has strong characters which are interesting to watch, but it does however, have a somewhat weak plot. The characters portrayed great body language. The film was effective in respect to being able to see Truffaut’s life through Antoine’s acting. This film evoked empathy, as one is led to feel sorry for Antoine.
Like literature, this movie also includes characters, setting, theme, point-of-view, and a plot. This movie was easy to follow even though; it was a French foreign film. I was able to follow the plot in this movie by reading the subtitles. A plot in a book or movie doesn’t make sense without any themes; this movie had a theme of friendship. Setting is described in a book, while in a movie you visualize what the setting is first hand. The point of view in a book is told in first person, second person, or third person. The point of view in a movie is usually in first person. The camera focused on Antoine for the majority of the movie, as a way of telling the audience it is a first person’s point of view. Also if you want to have a good audience, for either a movie or a book, one has to have a compelling plot.
Some dramatic aspects that made “The 400 Blows” interesting to watch were the actors, lighting, and the set design. The characters had strong reactions to one another. As soon as Rene appeared on the screen with Antoine, one was able to tell that these two had a friendship that would last through anything. When Antoine ran away from home Rene offered him a place to stay at his uncle’s printer building, and then later he offered Antoine to come live at his house. Rene also tried to visit Antoine at reform school, which seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere. So Rene would have had to bike a long ways to visit Antoine. This black and white movie used lighting in an effective way to portray emotions. Whenever Antoine was with his friend Rene the lighting in the scene was bright. When he was at home and unhappy the lighting was dark. The set design showed the family’s cramped living arrangements, which was a main factor in creating stress in the household.
The angle of camera shots, and the duration of those shots were strong cinematic aspects in this particular film. When Antoine was in his room, listening to his parents yell, and then hearing them discuss about whether or not Antoine should go to a military academy, the camera zoomed in solely on his face to show a look of concern. When Antoine ran away from his reform academy and the camera duration of his run was long, this showed how determined he was to escape form the school, and also how long it took him to finally get away. In the middle of the movie, when the gym class was running outside and the camera was at a bird’s eye view, it could show all of the children sneaking away form the class, which provided humor in the film.
“The 400 blows”, and “Black boy” had many things in common and in contrast. Some similarities include, both of the main characters were young boys who grew up in turbulent families. In “Black Boy” the father abandoned his family, and in “400 Blows” the parents gave up their parenting rights to the government. Another similarity is how both Antoine and Richard enjoyed reading and writing. Antoine admired the French author Balzac, and Richard enjoyed reading all kinds of literature he could find. One difference between these two characters is that Richard really didn’t have any good friends, while Antoine had his friend Rene offer him a place to live in his time of need. Another difference between the movie and the book, is the way the main characters reacted towards authority. Richard would rebel and do as he pleases, and in contrast, Antoine would have no reaction at all. He would let the adults yell at him, and continue his behavior as the way it was before.
I would recommend this movie others, only if they enjoy black and white, foreign films. This film had little humor in it, which made it slightly dull. There was a string theme of friendship present in this movie, along with strong characters, and a clear setting. The movie was easy to follow, yet boring.