What does the expression faire Les 400 Coups mean?
to live a wild life
The original title stems from the French expression “Faire les quatre cents coups”, meaning “to live a wild life”, as the main character does. Literal translation of the expression would be “to do the 400 dirty tricks”.
Was 400 Blows low budget?
But after the success of his short films, his wife Madeline’s father agreed to fund Truffaut’s first feature in the spirit of familial prosperity, and production commenced with a budget of around $75,000 (the average budget for a French film at the time was $250,000).
Why is it called 400 Blows?
The 400 Blows (whose French title comes from the idiom, faire les quatre cents coups—“to raise hell”) is rooted in Truffaut’s childhood. Born in Paris in 1932, he spent his first years with a wet nurse and then his grandmother, as his parents had little to do with him.
Is 400 Blows a true story?
Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” (1959) is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. Inspired by Truffaut’s own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime.
How did The 400 Blows end?
33: “The 400 Blows ends with the boy escaping from reform school, running toward the sea, and when he reaches the water, a freeze-frame of his face expresses uncertainty.”
What is the theme of The 400 Blows?
Going to the themes of “The 400 Blows”, there’s friendship, family, education and childhood that can be found in this film. Furthermore, the central themes that are to be found in this film are escapism, mischief, discipline, injustice and disobedience or noncompliance.
Why is The 400 Blows so good?
[The 400 Blows was] an elaboration of what the French New Wave directors would embrace as the caméra-stylo (camera-as-pen) whose écriture (writing style) could express the filmmaker as personally as a novelist’s pen. As a teen, he found a mentor in the critic Andre Bazin, and later dedicated The 400 Blows to him.
Why is The 400 Blows so important?
What does the ending of The 400 Blows mean?
The end of The 400 Blows is a resolution, but it’s not the one that you’re supposed to get from a coming-of-age story. The 400 Blows is ongoing. It basically says — again more truthfully — that this is the end of this chapter. I’m sure Truffaut didn’t plan to make sequels when he made The 400 Blows.
Why does Antoine steal the typewriter?
(Antoine loves Balzac and in a school essay he describes “the death of my grandfather”, in a close paraphrase of Balzac from memory.) He steals a Royal typewriter from his stepfather’s workplace to finance his plans to leave home, but, having been unable to sell it, is apprehended while trying to return it.
Does 400 Blows end with a freeze frame?
If you ask me why Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) ends with a freeze frame, it’s because of 400 Blows (1959). It’s an audacious thing to do because one of the contracts between an audience and a director (and the other people who make the film) is resolution. The 400 Blows is ongoing.
