Themes Of The 400 Blows

Screening Diary

1. The 400 Blows (France, Truffaut, 1959) – Themes The film, The 400 Blows is known in France as Les Quatre Cents Coups. The film, a French drama, was directed by François Truffaut in 1959. The stars of this film are Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Manurier and Albert Rémy. Léaud, the main character, plays the semi-autobiographical character. The film is renowned to be among the best films of the French New Wave because it vividly portrays the movement and its characteristics. The film, written by Marcel and Truffaut, revolves around the life of Antoine Doinel. Doinel is brought out as an adolescent boy in Paris. The boy is misunderstood by his teachers and parents to be a troublesome boy. This film represents part of a five series

The director, Truffaut, depicts the protagonist Antoine Doinel being served many different punishments of all forms throughout the film. The teacher makes him stand in a corner against his wishes, the teacher again makes him do more homework against his wish, and threatens to phone Doinel’s parents if he refuses to obey. The scene where the teacher administers the punishments at the beginning of the film. The punishments that the boy, faces become more pronounced and thorough as the film progresses. He is finally considered an offender and is placed in a home that hosts young offenders. This theme is brought out clearly ion the sense that the people in charge of Doinel’s upbringing consider his mistakes serious and punishable to that extent. The viewers might be sympathetic with him and feel that his mistakes do not warrant the nature and extent of punishments he is

The Bicycle Thieves (Italy, De Sica, 1948) – Social, Historical and Cultural Context. The film, The Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica, has an original Italian title Ladri di Biciclette. The plurality of the word thief indicates that there exists more than one thief in the film. This plurality is significant, because the film is based on the social context of Italy during an economically devastated post-war regime, where thieves increase rapidly. The focus on the daily life hustles of normal citizens is of interest to Italian neo-realist directors. These neo-realists depict reality in a more faithful fashion than films from the studios that dominated at that time. Neo-realism is characterized by use of actors who are not professional and location shooting. The film, The Bicycle thieves, has had a recognizable impact internationally because of the Italian neo-realist movement directors. Directors from Spain, Russia and India, such as Satyajit Ray, employed neo-realist ideas in their creation. The great influence of neo-realism can be witnessed in Salaam Bombay! (1988) by Mira Nair and much of contemporary cinema from