Director Francois Truffaut’s 1959 film, The 400 Blows seems to posit that every child lives their live on the edge of delinquency. Antoine Doinel suffers uncaring parents, and abusive teacher, and poor friends. That being said, Truffaut’s camera in this film captures the energy and optimism of youth with quick paced dolly shots and sweeping pans. Part way through the film, Antoine’s rambunctiousness takes hold as he and his friend go on a crime spree of sorts. They hold as tightly as they can to the carefree lifestyle of adolescence.
Jean-Pierre Leaud’s performance as Antoine is admirable. The character is played with an innocence yet with a rebellious fire. Several dissolve cuts make up a sequence in which Antoine answers the questions of a psychiatrist and delivers a powerful monologue when presented with an adult unlike his parents who is genuinely interested in hearing what he has to say.
Through the sequence of events in the film, Antoine finds himself landed in what seems to be a boarding school or juvenile center of sorts. Nevertheless, he makes his escape and an extended tracking shot follows him as he runs along a dirt road toward freedom. The silence is broken with a sweeping score as Antoine comes to a stop at a beach and the camera pans to reveal the endless expanse of ocean laid before him. The sea seems quite often to represent true freedom, and perhaps in Antoine’s abstract perception of it, it does. He is running again, as fast as he can across the sand and toward the waves, but upon finally reaching the surf he stops. The ocean becomes yet another barrier. He has ran as far as he can possibly physically run, so Antoine turns, looking directly into the camera in a final freeze frame that leaves the viewer locked in eye contact with a boy doomed to grow up.
Introduction to World Cinema 