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Too much of everything

Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In my youth I have done things that I considered as wrong or unjust because of my upbringing, but films like The 400 Blows, Murmur of the Heart and Call Me By Your Name clarify that the transition to boyhood to manhood and the endless need for exploration is ordinary. Not that living ordinary is a bad thing, it just means that everyone in life has this sense of sonder that may correlate with one another, it is real, it is beautiful, and boys (especially in their teens) do weird things when they're alone.Antoine Doinel is bright and curious but his environment is against him; teachers (Institution) who criticize him without consideration, parents (Family) who are distant like a generational gap, and authorities (Law) that has no care whatsoever to the youth for order. Having a friend like Rene is a blessing because you know they'll be friends for life and they share the same ideals. It is also fun to watch them roam the surroundings for adventure.Antoine isn't necessarily a sympathetic character, he's wild, stubborn, he used an excuse that his mother died for missing a day at school, stealing his grandmother's money just because. Léaud is amazing in this because you sympathize with him. The gazes to nowhere, mannerisms and the improvisations at his age at the time is genius. Raw talent and the realness of his portrayal should be a principle for authenticity in real life or actors who are willing to grasp it.The techniques that Francois Truffaut has done here is a pleasure to experience. The comical scenes with the kid getting ink all over his notebook and the dispersion of the students one by one. These takes are well earned and hilarious. The seamless and clean long takes of Antoine running is an awe and the freeze frames (the mugshot and end frame) is incredibly striking, you get the idea that those frames were directed at the audience.This movie is about freedom, in every sense of it. Antoine never seeing the sea in his life, finally reaching it, and it is a dead end - what's next for him?

A thought occurs to me as I read some of the other reviews for this film. Are some movies considered great because they made their mark during an earlier time when their form was considered new and daring? What if the same movie were made today? Would they receive the same recognition? Another reviewer states that Truffaut makes the mundane entirely absorbing. Watching this movie today I came away thinking that it was pretty much just mundane. I really didn't get much out of young Antoine Doinel's (Jean-Pierre Leaud) plight except that he was a directionless kid who was headed the wrong way in life with no one to apply the brakes. There wasn't a single role model he could look to in order to keep him on a straight path, making his descent into delinquency unavoidable.But did that really have to be? Another person in the same situation might have found a way to rise above those circumstances to be a stalwart student and a good citizen. It does happen all the time, maybe not the norm, but it does happen. It's my understanding that this was a somewhat autobiographical treatment by Truffaut, so if his young life was marred by similar circumstances, then one would congratulate him for rising above that situation. But taking us through this exercise with no conclusion seemed like a pointless one to me.

One of the defining films of its director François Truffaut as well as the French New Wave movement. The latter was a loose term joining together a group of mid-century French film makers that took upon as their goal to talk about current subjects, to experiment with the film medium and to ground it in reality through real locations and modern subject matters.And keeping that in mind, it's easy to see why this film become such a cornerstone for them. It tells about a young Parisian school boy Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), who struggles in every area of his life. His parents heap both scorn and misunderstandings upon him, his school work barely passes muster, and he spends most of his days partaking in minor crimes and misdemeanours. The film doesn't really have a traditional story arc. Doinel doesn't learn that much, his circumstances don't really change. Rather the whole film has the atmosphere of the inevitable in it as Doinel's life slowly spirals deeper and deeper into ruin, culminating in the last haunting shot of him staring directly into the camera on a deserted beach, silently crying for rescue.And yes, the film has a rather gruff feel. It seems like they simply set up the camera, shot the scene and excited the room. Which of course is the ideal of New Wave, but takes some getting used to from a viewer more familiar with mainstream film media.Still, it's a beautiful film in its own way. Personally I appreciate the ideal it represents more than I appreciate it as a stand-alone film, but I'm still glad I saw it.

What a dreadful disenchantment! What a shame of life! What a pity of parents! Sorry boy, it is not your entire fault: your school mates also want to run away from those 'chaotic' kind of teachers and miserable classroom. You are not the only one willing to do it, although your brightness looks like missing from your head-box and it is probably in your 'bollocks'. The educated ones once said: "the apple does not fall far from the tree", so Antoine darling, do not expect too much from this life, because it was your mother who drew your path since she gave you birth. What is more, did not you see her kissing that disgusting guy whilst crossing the pedestrian crossing? She does not give you money, she is not even interested in what you are studying at school... What kind of mother is that!? Yes, but do not forget to throw the garbage away...Ah, right, I understand. Only when you missed things up she comes to you and says "if you do this, I will give you that". Oh, come on! But even so, after all your 'minor effort' in Honoré de Balzac to get better marks, here comes the other nuts scatterbrained tutor and throws away all your effort. Even I would not make any effort to study in that case.However, remember that you have a treasure, which name is 'René'. Such a lovely friend, always helping and giving the most accurate advice. What a bad luck at the end, though, when he could not visit his friend Antoine, after a long journey with the bicycle. But, at any rate, Antoine is a good kid. When he has to take away the garbage he does it. When he has to study, he also does it. Even when his tutor tells him off and orders him to clean or do anything, he is listening! Let us not forget that after stealing the typewriter, it was him who decided to go back and leave it from where he took it, and it was not his Chicken-René-friend. I truly believe that François Truffaut wanted to show us the 'lack of child guidance' combined with the unhappy home life, Antoine's mistakes and his behavior towards the consequences. This movie reminded me of both Billy Elliot and Forrest Gump, given the fact that all characters are running towards desperate destinations, in a crucial time of their lives. I enjoyed the movie and the French expressions, but I disagree that this movie is better than Ben-Hur (1959) or Strangers on a Train (1951).