Les 400 Coups
- Feature
- 1959
- 99 Minutes
- France
- Language: French
The story of Antoine Doinel aged twelve and a half begins on the day he is given a severe punishment at school to do at home that evening. It happens that he is unable to do it. So, the next day, not daring to go back to school, Antoine, together with his best friend, René, discovers the joys of playing truant. That afternoon, he comes across his mother on the arm of a stranger.
Director: François Truffaut
Screenwriter: François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
Photos
Awards
1959: Cannes Film Festival, Best Director, OCIC Award/ Faro Island Film Festival, Main Competition, FIPRESCI Prize, Grand Jury Prize, Golden Train Award1960: Academy Awards, USA, Best Writing, Story and ScreenplayWritten Directly for the Screen, Oscar
Cast and Crew
Screenwriter: François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
Producer: François Truffaut
Editor: Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Music: Jean Constantin
Sound: Jean-Claude Marchetti
DOP / Camera: Henri Decaë
Cast: Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Jean-pierre Leaud
Director
François Truffaut
French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. In 1953 Truffaut published his first movie critiques in “Les Cahiers du Cinema.” In this magazine Truffaut, and some of his friends as passionate as he was, became defenders of what they call the “author policy”. In 1954, as a test, Truffaut directed his first short film. Two years afterwards he assisted Roberto Rossellini with some later abandoned projects. The year 1957, He founded his own production company. In 1959, the huge success of his first full-length film, The 400 Blows (1959), was the beginning of the New Wave. François Truffaut’s life and films are mixed up.His main themes were passion, women, childhood and faithfulness.