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What Is The Individualist Movement In The 400 Blows

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Francois Truffaut’s film, The 400 Blows, emerged as the initial force that began the French New Wave movement in cinema as well as revolutionized the cinematic landscape of France. The French New Wave movement was a movement that lasted from the late 1950s-early 1960s and was set during the country’s process of rebuilding its identity after World War 2. The movement consisted of the central conflict of challenging the traditional conventions of film-making from French filmmakers that preceded young French filmmakers through its depiction of themes of adolescence, rebellion, and social revolution. By rejecting the norms of the French film industry that was engulfed in the past, the movement encouraged individualistic approaches to film-making …show more content…

Within that period, his mother was not enthusiastic to raise a child as she was 17 years old when she had him and his father was not his biological father. Inheriting the trope of an “unwanted child” with “[neglectful] parents”, encouraged Truffaut to pursue the art of cinema by the time he was an adolescent (Fabe 180). As a teenager, he was infamous for being a delinquent and being expelled from every school that he attended. Specifically, he was “so oppressed by school authorities” that he ran away from home and lived off of temporary jobs and theft (Fabe 180). Truffaut’s personal experiences along with his troubled childhood would later influence his filmmaking as a source of inspiration as he drew from these experiences to adapt a relatable approach to his earlier films. Before embarking on his career as a director, Truffaut was a film critic for the magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma, where he was also with a group of film critics and filmmakers that shared the same title as the magazine. The group Truffaut was involved in consisted of not only criticizing films but also concurrently sharing the same ambitious approach to filmmaking that would accentuate the director’s influence on creating a film and encouraging change within an art form that has remained stagnant for years prior. Working as a critic would also help him advance in analyzing films in depth and refine what it means to direct films. As a result of this development, Truffaut’s approach to criticizing films recurringly emphasized the role of the director. By “[enshrining] the directors” he critiqued, it helped to promote the auteur theory as well as further advance the filmmaking process for young French filmmakers (Andrew and Gillain

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As wonderful as his family seemed on the outside and in the novel by Krakauer, there was a certain instances that “compared to [Carine’s] reality, the book and film were extremely kind to [the audience],” (McCandless 15). McCandless and his sister Carine were three years apart but endured the same horrors in their childhood homes. More often than not, the two of them would have to witness their parents brawl physically and “waited in fear of what would happen-not just to [their] mom but also to [themselves]- if [they] left before given permission,” (McCandless 15). McCandless’s abusive father was one of the largest influences on why he chose to leave home. Walt McCandless felt it was necessary for his children to watch him hurt their mother, constantly pointing out how much he valued her.

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In the mid to late 1950’s France saw the birth a new and unique form of moviemaking. This movement was famously known as the French New Wave and was developed by many different directors, critics and film students. Films found in the New Wave many communities that tie them together. Although a very famous New Wave film that came out near the end of the cycle, La Jetee (1962), broke away from many of the common tropes. The 400 Blows (1959) on the other hand was one of the first examples of a New Wave film, meaning that it followed the tropes more closely.

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Unforgettable past from an individual’s childhood can result in a long-term traumatized future life, far more excessive then what is deemed reasonable. The feeling of neglect and abandonment is evident in a young characters life, where the feeling of being loved was not validated. The main character Gus expresses much hate towards his father whom had abandoned him at a young age, which led to many uncertainties. A traumatizing experience can resurface from the past impacting ones self in future experiences. Gus demonstrates this through his unbearable relationship with his father, the way in which he acts as a father figure to his daughter, as well as his unforgivable traits towards his father.

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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.

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In the French New Wave Movement, Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS is a landmark and most important in the emergence of auteur filmmaking. With the help of this autobiographical concept, Truffaut has explored his own childhood that how the film director is also the film author. Among many film historians, French New Wave movement remains changing a collection of names, dates and films because of every film historian had its own definition of movement. In this aspect, many critics launched a theory called as the auteur theory which stated the notion that a director of the film is also the author of the film. In doing so, Cahiers du cinema authors realized that their own cinemas had bogged down by the ancient ways, which was not awareness to the film

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auteur əʊˈtəː,ɔː-/ noun a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author. There are distinctive similarities between all Hitchcock Films, some of the being voyeurism, falling, transference of guilt, food and death. There are two Hitchcock films that are going to be the main focus for this piece of writing, ‘Rear Window’ (1954) and ‘Shadow of the doubt’ (1943). Alfred Hitchcock’s distinctive style can be seen in both movies. Young Charlie (shadow of the doubt) and L.B Jefferies are both similar, in which they are both trapped.

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François Truffaut's very first film, 1959's The 400 Blows, was a film on an astute and happy schoolboy who looks for the delights of cinema, companionship, and freedom while endeavoring to have a typical life with his careless parents and wanton teacher. In this film, the camera does not attempt to keep the watcher out of the constructed reality of the film nor do they endeavor to disguise the activities of the camera. For instance, take the scene from The 400 Blows in which the camera follows a few students led by their gym instructor through the avenues of the city. While following the parade, the camera clears high into the air. We see small groups of students leave the line vanishing into back roads and little shops.

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This 1970 film is based on true events in a French forest where a child is found who cannot walk, speak, read, or write (IMDb, n.d.). The film emphasizes the pain of adolescence as Dr. Jean Itard takes on the challenge of Victor, a non-verbal wild boy found abandoned in the woods (Rotten Tomatoes, 2018). Realizing the institute’s cruel methods, Dr. Itard brings Victor to his home to implement communication techniques through kindness and compassion towards Victor (Rotten Tomatoes, 2018). The film demonstrates the implications that an individual may face after experiencing social isolation for a majority of their lifetime. Classical conditioning suggests that everything from speech to emotional responses was simply patterns of stimulus and response (McLeod, 2014).

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The director is known as a filmmaker who has the head creative vision of a film and thereby gives a film a distinctive and recognizable individual style. The macro and micro aspects of a film such as color, costume, actors, set design and score tend to be seen often throughout the director’s work and films and highlights their individual voice, vision, and ideologies. For example, a director may use the same actors in all their films, so they could be classed as an auteur just by this individual factor. I will be discussing Werner Herzog as a director and if he can be classed as an auteur, and how the vision in his work creates meaning in his mise-en-scene. Werner Herzog was born in 1942 in Germany and has developed his craft as an author,

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They saw the directors as the main creative force in film production, describing Hitchcock as a true auteur, the director is to portray their own style and way in which they see the world through the lens. This becomes expressed through freedom of the camera and creation of an auteur signature. Cahiers du critics achieved their goal of cinema gaining legitimacy of the traditional arts with the law of 1957 which attributed the status of ‘author’ to the filmmaker. ‘Tomorrow’s film will not be made by camera technicians but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a formidable and exalting adventure. Tomorrow’s film will resemble its author’ (Truffaut, 1957)

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Breathless, originally titled ‘À bout de souffle’, made in 1960 is a movie about a small-time thief who steals a car and murders a policeman. The story is about authorities chasing him while he reunites with an American journalist and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy. Jean-Luc Godard, the director of the movie often quotes, ‘To make a film, all you need is a girl and a gun.’, which is probably the inspiration behind this movie. Breathless was one of the movies that kicked off the French New Wave. Like several of his French New Wave members, Jean-Luc Godard started as a film critic, and wrote for the magazine ‘Cahiers du Cinema’ in the 1950s, when he was in his early 20s.

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One of the lengthiest and most obscure debates among cinema fans regards the topic of what is cult, what art-house and what mainstream. Usually, discussions like that do not reach a definite conclusion, however, there are some themes, notions and events that define what is cult, which is the point of interest of this particular list. The filmmakers that shot the films in this list challenged the notions of everything considered normal and even acceptable by society, in terms of politics, culture, history, society, violence and sex. This tactic originated from their non-existent regard for commercial success and resulted in broken taboos, offensive and even blasphemous images, characters, dialogues and themes, and even to a number of hilarious

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