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Truffaut took teen spirit to a new level in 400 Blows
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09 April 2009
When François Truffaut was banned from Cannes for writing rude things about the festival, his father-in-law challenged him to make a movie of his own. His debut was gratefully accepted by a forgiving Cannes and won him the Best Director award in 1959.
It is, of course, one of the best evocations of youthful travails and uncertainties ever put on film and, if you have never seen it, hasten to do so. All the Antoine Doinel films that followed starred Jean-Pierre Léaud as Truffaut’s alter ego, but this is the best. Léaud embodies Truffaut at 12, left to his own devices by his parents, getting into trouble at school and ending up in a centre for juvenile delinquents.
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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.
The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)
Cert: PG
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