Still one of the cinema's most perceptive forays into childhood.
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01/26/06
The 400 Blows (1959)
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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... [More]
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Guy Decomble
Director: Francois Truffaut
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Reviews for The 400 Blows
One of the best movies about childhood ever made because it's really a movie for adults. Without sentiment, it looks at the fears, doubts, and anxieties of childhood.
06/13/05
Perhaps Truffaut's most affecting film.
01/01/00
For all of Truffaut's mastery of the behind-the-camera aspects of The 400 Blows, an equal share of the credit must go to lead actor Jean-Pierre Léaud.
08/01/02
Top Criticit informs everything we know today about watching movies.
04/15/06
An enduring masterpiece...Truffaut's autobiographical fiction shows an admirable equanimity by depicting the highs and lows of boyhood. [Blu-ray]
03/22/09
One of the first glistening droplets of the French New Wave.
04/09/09
Amazingly, this vigorous effort is the first feature film of M. Truffaut, who had previously been (of all things!) the movie critic for a French magazine.
05/20/03
Top CriticVibrant, visually exciting and emotionally resonant.
04/09/09
The later films have their own merits, and Stolen Kisses is one of Truffaut's best, but The 400 Blows, with all its simplicity and feeling, is in a class by itself.
01/01/00
Top CriticFrançois Truffaut's iconoclastic feature debut and one of the most enduring examples of the French New Wave.
04/23/09
Alive with the joy of filmmaking for its own sake.
04/07/09
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.
04/09/09
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.
03/27/09
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.
04/09/09
Truffault's masterpiece. Timeless and true, heartbreakingly sad.
08/25/09
Distinguished by its intensity of feeling and freewheeling use of the wide-screen frame, the film ranks among Truffaut's best.
07/09/07
Top CriticLéaud's performance is a marvel in the way he conveys Antoine's frustration with the world around him and the inability of adults to understand him.
05/30/03
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.
08/07/08
A landmark in modern cinema.
04/17/01
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