Sie küssten und schlugen ihn ja gar nicht!

Les Quatre Cents Coups

I really, really love the german title of this film, which literally translates as “They kissed and they hit him”. It is such a good title, and I have a certain history with it. Years ago, the film was shown in german television and for some reason I cannot remember, I was intrigued by the title, thinking that it was some soft porn. What the heck XD

What can I say. I have recently looked at the list of The Criterion Collection releases when I saw that I have only watched 21 of those films. Well, now it’s 22 but the quota is still ridiculously low considering that the Criterion collection features many, many directors that I actually like. The decision of watching “The 400 Blows” came much, much earlier though. I think it was recommended to me years ago, but then it kind of drowned in my endless to-watch list. Before the day I am going to retire, I am pretty sure that I am never going to be able to work myself through this list. XD

But really, Truffaut is a genius. Today, I wish I too had put some metro tickets onto his grave. Of course “Jules et Jim” already made me totally in awe of his work, but while “La peau douce” has kind of weakened my admiration for Truffaut, “Les 400 coups” makes me want to see much, much more. Jean-Pierre Léaud was a genius at that young age, even his classmates are actually pretty good. (Daniel Radcliffe is absolutely nothing against this.) I think he is amazingly good-looking, especially for a french guy, and although he is never going to be able to reach my top 3 (E. Norton, G. García B. and J. Gyllenhaal of course), he makes me really interested in seeing the rest of the Antoine Doinel series.

All in all, this film was a little different from what I have expected myself. I actually wanted a story about a child who faces the harsh reality of adults, a little bit Horváth-style. I have expected more sex, a comparably more brilliant boy who does somewhat more reasonable things, but I have been forgetting that this is a Nouvelle Vague movie. Despite the slightly sad end, it is actually rather cheerful, extremely stylish and takes everything with a grain of salt. I would even go as far to say that many dialogues had comedic effects. Plus, the whole film was showing a very romantic Paris in black and white – this really is the first Nouvelle Vague, and reminds me of how much I love the style.

My favorite scene was the very last, I think. I really loved how he reached the sea at the end, and I liked the cinematography of this boy running through the countryside. Even though it does not play in Paris, I think this is the kind of feeling that makes the film nice. So unless you absolutely need an adult to be the main character of a film or you hate Nouvelle Vague films with a passion, I would totally recommend the film. On the other hand, I would probably not recommend “Les 400 coups” to somebody to get familiar with the Nouvelle Vague – in that case, I’d rather go for “À bout de souffle” or “Jules et Jim”.