Where to watch The 400 Blows (1959)
The 400 Blows is available to stream in CA on The Criterion Channel, CTV, Crave, Tubi TV and Plex. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV.
A troubled young boy in Paris struggles with neglectful parents, unsympathetic teachers, and a growing sense of isolation. Alongside his best friend, he seeks escape through mischief and small schemes, but a reckless act brings him into conflict with the law and the adults who have failed to understand him.
Cast: Claire Maurier, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay, Robert Beauvais, Yvonne Claudie, Pierre Repp, Guy Decomble, Daniel Couturier, François Nocher, Richard Kanayan
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Trivia & production notes
- The French title 'Les Quatre cents coups' refers to an idiom meaning 'to raise hell,' a meaning lost in the literal English translation.
- The film's original American distributor rejected the subtitle 'Wild Oats' and insisted on keeping the title 'The 400 Blows' instead.
- François Truffaut dedicated the film to André Bazin, who died just as production was about to begin.
- The 400 Blows incorporates a scene directly borrowed from Jean Vigo's 1933 film Zéro de conduite.
- The film draws from Truffaut's own childhood, including the protagonist's discovery of solace in movie theaters, mirroring Truffaut's own experience.
- Truffaut reunited with lead actor Jean-Pierre Léaud for four subsequent films that continued to follow the character of Antoine Doinel.
- The 400 Blows opened the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Director Award at that same festival.
- Directors including Akira Kurosawa, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, and Nicolas Cage have cited the film as one of their favorites, with Kurosawa calling it 'one of the most beautiful films that I have ever seen.'
- The 71st Venice International Film Festival used the Antoine Doinel character from the film on its official festival poster.
- In a 2018 BBC poll of 209 critics across 43 countries, The 400 Blows was voted the eighth greatest foreign-language film of all time.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article The 400 Blows, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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