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The Great Owl · 01-08-2015, 06:18 PM

I (finally) watched my Criterion Blu-ray of The 400 Blows last night.

I've seen the movie several times by way of my old DVD, but the Blu-ray upgrade sat neglected at the bottom of my still-unwatched stack for almost a year.

I love how François Truffaut's feature-length directorial debut blends nostalgia, laughter, sadness, innocence, and maturity into such a fast-paced narrative that pulls the viewer along by way of visually intuitive camerawork.

While watching The 400 Blows, I always remember the crazy and dumb things that I did during childhood. When I was 11 years old back in 1983, I tagged along with my older brother and his friends while they broke into a hunting lodge in the woods behind our neighborhood. They had no malicious intent, but were just clowning around and trying to see if a break-in could be done. When the local police discovered that we were the culprits, they showed up at our houses, talked to all of our parents, and had us visit the police department and jail for a conference. It turns out that the police just wanted to scare the wits out of my friends and me so that we would avoid trouble in the future, and their plan worked. This was quite a terrifying experience for my 11 year-old self, and I have never forgotten the look, the smell, and the overall vibe of that city jail. The scene in The 400 Blows where Antoine Doinel is locked into his holding cell and we see the chicken wire of the cell from his point of view always brings back recollections of my own experience.

I'm sure that every adult clearly remembers that first moment during childhood when he or she got into real trouble...not just in trouble with parents or in trouble with the schoolteacher, but real trouble. I suspect that this is one reason why this Truffaut film has such a universal appeal.

01-08-2015, 06:18 PM	#118313
The Great Owl Blu-ray Archduke Member since:Dec 2012 Location:Georgia 4K collection:924 Blu-ray collection:6033 DVD collection:28 Blu-ray reviews: 255 Trading Score:6	I (finally) watched my Criterion Blu-ray of The 400 Blows last night. I've seen the movie several times by way of my old DVD, but the Blu-ray upgrade sat neglected at the bottom of my still-unwatched stack for almost a year. I love how François Truffaut's feature-length directorial debut blends nostalgia, laughter, sadness, innocence, and maturity into such a fast-paced narrative that pulls the viewer along by way of visually intuitive camerawork. While watching The 400 Blows, I always remember the crazy and dumb things that I did during childhood. When I was 11 years old back in 1983, I tagged along with my older brother and his friends while they broke into a hunting lodge in the woods behind our neighborhood. They had no malicious intent, but were just clowning around and trying to see if a break-in could be done. When the local police discovered that we were the culprits, they showed up at our houses, talked to all of our parents, and had us visit the police department and jail for a conference. It turns out that the police just wanted to scare the wits out of my friends and me so that we would avoid trouble in the future, and their plan worked. This was quite a terrifying experience for my 11 year-old self, and I have never forgotten the look, the smell, and the overall vibe of that city jail. The scene in The 400 Blows where Antoine Doinel is locked into his holding cell and we see the chicken wire of the cell from his point of view always brings back recollections of my own experience. I'm sure that every adult clearly remembers that first moment during childhood when he or she got into real trouble...not just in trouble with parents or in trouble with the schoolteacher, but real trouble. I suspect that this is one reason why this Truffaut film has such a universal appeal.