RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

The 400 Blows (1959)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
100 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:48

Fresh:48

Rotten:0

Average Rating:9.3/10

Consensus: A seminal French New Wave film that offers an honest, sympathetic, and wholly heartbreaking observation of adolescence without trite nostalgia.

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Director François Truffaut's first feature film, THE 400 BLOWS, is a landmark in French cinema. Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a 13-year-old boy who can't seem to do anything right. His... Director François Truffaut's first feature film, THE 400 BLOWS, is a landmark in French cinema. Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a 13-year-old boy who can't seem to do anything right. His parents yell at him and then bribe him for his love and his promises to work harder in school. Meanwhile, his schoolteacher is out to get him and blames Antoine for everything--turning him into the class clown. As a result, Antoine runs away from school and his difficult family, living on the streets of Paris and committing petty crimes. While his life on the street is tough, it's much better than dealing with his preoccupied parents and his accusatory teacher. Nonetheless, things only go downhill for Antoine, descending to a simultaneously painful and beautiful conclusion. A truly impressive film, THE 400 BLOWS is raw, honest, and intensely emotional. Imbued with a strong and complex personality, Antoine maintains his poise and self-confidence, even as he endures abusive treatment from every adult he encounters. René Simonet (Patrick Auffray) is Antoine's one pal, and the unspoken dialogues between the boys, depicted by Truffaut through the boys' facial expressions and with masterful roving photography, allow the viewer to see through Antoine's eyes and understand his unflinching tenacity. Few films have captured the difficulties of childhood as well as this acclaimed French masterpiece. Essentially the start of the French New Wave movement, THE 400 BLOWS is also the beginning of Truffaut's Antoine Doinel cycle, which follows Léaud as Antoine in five additional films over the course of 20 years. [More]

Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Guy Decomble

Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Guy Decomble, Patrick Auffray

Director: Francois Truffaut

Director: Francois Truffaut

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Mar 24, 1998

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for The 400 Blows

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Truffault's masterpiece. Timeless and true, heartbreakingly sad.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
08/25/09
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

François Truffaut's iconoclastic feature debut and one of the most enduring examples of the French New Wave.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
04/23/09
Jon Fortgang
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film

What is there to say about The 400 Blows that hasn't already been said?

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
04/23/09
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph

It's a cornerstone of the French New Wave, and one of the greatest movies about childhood, from anywhere, ever.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
04/17/09
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Henri Decae’s black and white photography helped Truffaut enormously but what the director himself provides is a sense that though there is no easy answer to the problems of growing up, there is a hope that will never be wholly denied.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
04/17/09
This is London

Vibrant, visually exciting and emotionally resonant.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/09/09
Nick Dawson
Nick Dawson
Empire Magazine

One of the first glistening droplets of the French New Wave.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
04/09/09
Nina Caplan
Nina Caplan
Time Out

Distinguished by its naturalistic, quasi-documentary approach and an extraordinary central performance from the 12-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud, this is a blisteringly authentic story.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
04/09/09
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]

It's streetwise stuff, shot in a vigorous on-the-hoof style, but also full of joy, both in its blissfully comic moments and in Doinel's telling passion for moviegoing.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
04/09/09
Kevin Harley
Kevin Harley
Total Film

Alive with the joy of filmmaking for its own sake.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
04/07/09
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

The 400 Blows, one of the initiating sparks of the French New Wave, ultimately boils down to the film's trendsetting coda, perhaps the most exclamatory question mark in movies.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
03/27/09
Eric Henderson
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

An enduring masterpiece...Truffaut's autobiographical fiction shows an admirable equanimity by depicting the highs and lows of boyhood. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
03/22/09
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

This should be required viewing for today’s droves of would-be memoirsts in film or any other medium, and otherwise is simply a must for anybody who likes great movies.

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Jonathan Kiefer
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review

Seems forever young.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
02/01/08
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
01/18/08
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

Francois Truffaut's debut film not only galvanized the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movement of French cinema, but also generated a personal language of cinema that Truffaut would elaborate on for the rest of his career.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
10/20/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Forget my curmudgeonly attitude and see it -- again, or for the first time -- for yourself.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
09/27/07
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A remarkable confluence of talents are at work here.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
09/27/07
Nick Pinkerton
Nick Pinkerton
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Distinguished by its intensity of feeling and freewheeling use of the wide-screen frame, the film ranks among Truffaut's best.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
07/09/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An engaging, moving film.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
07/09/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

Latest News for The 400 Blows

June 12, 2009: Five Favourite Films with Wes Craven
No director in recent history has made their particular genre as much their own as Wes Craven. The legendary helmer virtually redefined the horror movies with the likes of The... More...

March 23, 2009: RT on DVD: Bolt, Bond, and Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter
It's a good week for Watchmen fans, as the highly anticipated animated short Tales of the Black Freighter (and the faux-documentary Under the Hood) arrive on shelves. Animation... More...

See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
15% 15% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
36% 36% Angels & Demons
68% 68% Funny People
25% 25% Four Christmases
45% 45% Shorts

More New Releases…

See All

RT On Current TV

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

What’s Hot On RT

Avatar

Avatar

Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes video!

Box Office

Box Office

New Moon #1, breaks TDK records

RT's Gift Guide

RT's Gift Guide

Give the best movies, gear, and more!

Ninja Assassin

Ninja Assassin

Learn to train like a ninja in this clip!

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
9
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
106
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
  • 6 Reasons 'Twilight' Is Doomed Source: The Wrap
64
  • Forbes Names Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actors Source: Forbes
20
  • Chris Weitz Says He's (Almost) Done with Directing Source: Film School Rejects
26
  • Spider-Man 4 Casting Rumors Multiply Like Rabbits Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
51
  • McTeigue Says Superman Is "In a Weird Place" Source: MTV
204
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
162
  • Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
129
  • Tomatometer Watch: Will Twilight's New Moon Dazzle?
97
  • Total Recall: Star-Crossed Lovers
74
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
53
  • Five Favorite Films with Werner Herzog
50
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
36
  • Friday Harvest: New Moon, Avatar, and more!
31
  • RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Angels & Demons, Funny People, and Superman
13
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
3
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
3
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
8
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
19
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
6
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
16
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • The 400 Blows at Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh Links

Featured
Star Trek DVD Exclusive
Star Trek DVD Exclusive External Link

TECHLAND gives us a first look at the extras, including Leonard Nimoy's last day on set!

The New Cult Canon
The New Cult Canon External Link

AV Club looks at a beloved cult classic, Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.

New Moon Portraits
New Moon Portraits External Link

TIME offers us a closer look at the characters from the latest Twilight film.

Unsexiest Men Alive
Unsexiest Men Alive External Link

Moviefone lists their choices for the least attractive men in Hollywood.

Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Follow RT on Twitter External Link

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.