How Is Antoine Doinel Portrayed In The 400 Blows

Director François Truffaut outdid himself in his debut film The 400 Blows. Receiving numerous nominations and awards, The 400 Blows tells the story of young boy, Antoine Doinel, and his escapades in the city of Paris. Living in a home with unsupportive parents, Antoine tries to avoid the tense household by being adventurous with his best friend René. Throughout the movie, Antoine is filmed rebelling against his parents and trying to cope with his apparent neglect from his parents. Truffaut channels his own childhood in the character and impressively does so, by making Antoine his own character. In the article by Alastair Phillips, Phillips claims that youthfulness in the movie is characterized by restlessness of the characters and by the film

Sometimes I’d tell them the truth and they still wouldn’t believe me, so I prefer to lie.” He justifies the lying to his parents by explaining that his parents do not understand him and do not support his ideas. As a young boy, it is difficult to deal with the feeling of invalidation, so he struggled to balance his relationship with his parents and school. His harsh relationship with his parents was depicted in the way he acted at school. Constantly mischievous, Antoine tricked teachers and lied to teachers while being supported only by his best friend Rene. He even lied to his teacher and told him that his mother was dead. Of course, the satisfaction of getting positive attention from the teacher disappeared quickly, as the teacher found out about the lies escaping from Doinel’s mouth. The fact that Doinel would do whatever necessary to get what he wants is demonstrated by this lie to the teacher, and his stealing from his parents. His youthful ignorance is encompassed in his constant need for validation and attention. Even though Antoine periodically runs away from his home, and gets in trouble often, like when he plagiarised Balzac and finally quit school, Antoine is still a small child. When his parents temporarily decide to take an understanding approach to parenting, he is excited and is laughing after coming home from the movie. As mentioned in the article, even the characters in the movie are restless and use their restlessness to demonstrate youthfulness. Antoine’s troubled relationship with his parents means that he has little patience for events in other aspects of his life, so his constant, restless need to explore follows him throughout Paris. He often feels trapped in these situations, however, which is shown in the scene where he skips school and goes to a ride where he is unable to move. The life of trying to be an independent, young boy is a daunting task and it is extremely