Director Francois Truffaut’s picture about a young boy with absolutely no direction in his life is one of compelling storytelling topped by incredible filmmaking. Truffaut explores the aimlessness and joy of youth, as well as the ticking hands of time that accompany youth as our protagonist Antoine Doinel realizes all too early he’s becoming a man, and the innocence he’s savored for so long is doomed to come to a bitter end, very soon. Hence the haunting and enigmatic closing scene where he scampers on to the beach, one of his favorite locations in the world, and looks out on to what almost feels like a blank slate.
Though Truffaut shows us the sand and water, the horizon looks white, as if Doinel has yet to fill in what may be a life filled with pain and zero satisfaction. Doinel is a young boy that’s wised up to the world long before he’s reached adulthood, and approaches every situation with a numbness that’s unnerving, but a necessity to his survival. When he decides to skip school for the day, he accidentally catches his mother in the throes of another man on the street and uses it as an opportunity to keep her silence. He also holds very little regard toward his father who, himself, sees Doinel as something of a burden and obligation. Doinel and his parents live in a very cramped flat that keeps the trio constantly crashing in to one another. A bad idea considering Doinel’s parents make it painfully clear time and time again that they hate one another, and hold little love for Doinel.
He sleeps in the hall like an alley cat and through his all knowing eyes, watches his parents stumble back and forth, and argue behind very thin walls. Doinel lives life in a household where peace is a luxury and the friction between his parents threaten to explode in to a fury of hatred and resentment toward him and him alone. Doinel holds little regard toward his education, or keeping up his responsibilities, because he’s aware deep down that he may just be on the verge of ending up like his parents. Or worse, a life of crime, that continuously confronts him through his escapades of stealing, breaking in to houses, lurking around public buildings, and stealing a typewriter for some quick cash. Doinel’s sense of adventure undercuts his life two fold, as he sinks in to a dreary dead end, whenever he gets home, and spends large amounts of time outdoors, exploring the city of Paris, and attending the movies with his friends.
It’s his one escape not even his parents can destroy, and he savors every experience in the movies with wide eyes and a far off gaze in to another world. Most of “The 400 Blows” revolves around Doinel wandering around and attempting to figure out a way to escape his home life, leading him in to street corners, friends’ houses, and an abandoned factory. When he finally does escape, it’s against his will, and Doinel is given a preview of a life earned by crime. Doinel is a perpetually wandering soul searching for a direction he can adjust to and garner enough fulfillment to assure a life he will have to settle for. Whether it’s a goal he can ever acquire is one that’s signified in the bittersweet final scene. “The 400 Blows” is assuredly a rich and fascinating look at youth and its fleeting joys, and a genuine masterpiece.