5 - The 400 Blows

[captainofbeef]

- New, restored high-definition transfer
- Two audio commentaries: one by cinema professor Brian Stonehill and another by lifelong friend of Truffaut, Robert Lachenay
- Rare audition footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan
- Newsreel footage of Léaud in Cannes for the showing of The 400 Blows
- Excerpt from a French TV program with Truffaut discussing his youth, critical writings, and the origins of Antoine Doinel
- Television interview with Truffaut about the global financial reception of The 400 Blows and his own critical impression of the film
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translations

[blackmoses]

This is the next Criterion I will be buying.

[criterionmaster]

This film was just amazing. It is easily one of the best films ever made. The kids performance is very good. The scene were the kids skip school is amazing. I would love to do that!

[blackmoses]

This is one of the best films of all time! Fantastic acting and Truffaut is just amazing. This is the best Truffaut out of the ones I have seen. I will be seeing more soon.

[ie]

This is a primary example where spoiling movies can ruin it for other people. Any review in the history of the universe will outline the entire movie including the ending, which is not a good thing.

And, I just didn't see the brilliance that everyone else did. Oh well.

[criterionmaster]

Yeah, I try to not read reviews of films before I see them. It sucks that you didn't enjoy this film as much as me. I am sure by now you know that it was about Truffaut's childhood and blah blah blah but to make a movie so close to him and still make the film not obviously about him is brilliant and the only other case where I can think of that happening is Untitled. Maybe you will enjoy Jules and Jim, one of my favorites as well. It is about love between friends and blah blah blah (no spoilers ) So don't give up yet, maybe in a few years you will look back and love the film.

[ie]

It's funny, though.

It was your friend and mine, Roger Ebert, that spoiled the whole movie for me. Slowly, very slowly, but surely, I am losing respect in him for all of his opinions... except the ones we share.

[criterionmaster]

Listen to his commentary on Citizen Kane, it will give you more respect for him, at least as a film historian. His reviews are different than most, he grades on the genre of the film. Like if it is good for what it trys to be then he gives it a high rating. Take Cheaper by the Dozen 2, he gave it 3/4 because it was good at what it tried to do (in his mind). I don't like this kind of rating system too much. Makes him look like an idiot when someone says he gave Cheaper by the Dozen 2 a 3/4 and some other, better film a lesser rating.

And I think he doesn't want you to read his in-depth reviews before seeing the film, as they sometime include spoilers, like you found out. I don't remember where I heard this, maybe I read it somewhere though.

[ie]

Well, I respect Ebert for the most part. You know, like I know he's seen a lot of movies, and I don't hate his guts.


I just don't like how he reviews movies, as his facts don't tend to line up with the facts presented in the movie (he shortens ideas and generalizes things).

His review of Taste of Cherry is a perfect example, where he clearly knows nothing of what's going on, but wants to appear "with it" and he even arrogantly said "Just as a bad novel can be made into a good movie, so can a boring movie be made into a fascinating movie review." That quote right there goes in the record books as one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

I also think he's the luckest fucker in the world. He essentially gets to sit around all day and watch movies, and then write shit about them. Even if he's completely wrong, he still gets paid. And that's all he has to do. Ever.

But yeah, I just wanted to check out his review of the 400 Blows to see what it was about, and low and behold, I found out everything I ever wanted to know about the movie.

[misterbalco]

Ebert is a pimp, straight up. You guys are just jealous of the man! I loved Taste of Cherry, but some people are so anal about that fuckin review. Get over it, he hates one movie that you love, and for god sakes, after 40 years of movie reviews, he had to at some point say 'one of the dumbest things youve ever read'. Ebert is an ambassador to film, thanks to him, you watch great films...im not sure if i would be watching movies like even Taste of Cherry if it wasnt for him. He may disagree with you about a film, but I guarentee that he can back it up better than any of us ever can.

[ie]

Ha. Yeah, I'm just jealous because he gets to write his own checks. I have yet to watch a movie because of our boy Ebert, and I don't see him as much as an asset to movies as you apparently do.


But anyways, the 400 Blows. The title definitely should have been translated better, or at the least, be given a different title. When you walk into a movie titled "the 400 Blows," you could expect a boxing movie like Raging Bull. Upon further inspection, okay, it's a story of a kid and stuff. Okay, so the blows could be like blows to his ego, his place in the world or his life.

But 400? How does that relate to the movie?


Oh well, whatever, I don't care.

[criterionmaster]

I personally love the title, like I said over at TCB about my picture captions, I really like when a title is a mystery to us/or to everyone but yourself. What the fuck does a title matter anyway? It should be up to the director what to name a film, or the person what to title a picture. It's a cool thing to come up with a title for something, to you it works, who cares what anyone else thinks. Look at Brazil; does anyone know why it is called that? I doubt it, but we except it because Gilliam is a genius. I do love the title of this film, so it doesn't bother me but I just thought I would share my thoughts on titling a film.

But indeed, someone at my school did think it was a boxing film when he read the title on my background. But I could care less what he thinks the film is about.

By the way, I forgot to mention in this thread but I did say it somewhere else, if you love this film go out and watch Antoine and Colette, the sequel to this film, it is one of my favorite short films ever and a great companion to this film.

And another thing I want to say, I did mention before about the part with the kids ditching school, but I didn't go into detail on why I loved it. Well I guess I loved it because it represents childhood, adventure, and just having fun, in my eyes. It is like in movies when you wish you were doing what the characters are doing in the film, well I wish I was riding at the amusement park, skipping school. But with the fear of being caught. It just seems like the ultimate adventure-type thing for me. Whether that makes sense or not, that is what I feel, at least that is what I can express in words.

[ie]

Titles concern me because otherwise I think about them, and if I don't find any reasonable answer for them, it disappoints me.

I haven't seen Brazil, but I think Gilliam was probably like "hmmm... Brazil sounds like a nice place."

[captainofbeef]

Took me forever to see this movie and I really enjoyed it