Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and the Rise of the New Wave

The 400 Blows is a landmark of the French New Wave movement and a defining example of its realism. More broadly, it marks the rise of auteur filmmaking. François Truffaut’s film was one of the first to put into practice the ideas developed by a group of young film critics—directors like Agnès Varda, Jacques Rivette, and Jean-Luc Godard—who wrote for the film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. Along with Truffaut, they became the leading figures of the New Wave.

Truffaut’s harshest critiques were aimed at the so-called “tradition of quality” in French cinema, which he believed was growing artistically stagnant. French films had become dominated by polished but uninspired literary adaptations—overly dramatic, historical, and dull. With his 1959 debut, he set out to practice what he passionately preached in his Cahiers essays. Through the autobiographical character of Antoine Doinel, he explored his childhood and, in doing so, demonstrated how a film director could be an actual film writer.

Today, The 400 Blows may not seem groundbreaking, especially regarding its realism. At its core, it is a coming-of-age story: a young boy, frustrated with his parents and miserable as a teenager, starts acting out, gets into serious trouble, and eventually runs away. The French title, Les Quatre Cents Coups, comes from an expression meaning “to raise hell.”

Truffaut’s film perfectly captures the atmosphere of mid-1950s France. The film industry had grown complacent at the time, leading to fierce criticism from the Cahiers du Cinéma writers. However, by 1958, many critics had started making films themselves. Godard’s Breathless and Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour were early signs of change. The French film industry was on the verge of a revolution.

The New Wave would go on to define the split between modern and classic filmmaking.

Truffaut was born in Paris in 1932. He spent his early years with a nurse and his grandmother, only returning home when he was eight after his grandmother passed away. As an only child, he was expected to stay quiet and out of sight, but he found solace in books and the cinema. Like Antoine, Truffaut discovered a second home at the movies—often sneaking in through exit doors and bathroom windows.

He even resorted to stealing money to buy tickets. In The 400 Blows, Antoine and his friend René reflect Truffaut’s childhood mischief, particularly his deep love for cinema and his friendship with Robert Lachenay. The film captures this bond in René’s failed attempt to visit Antoine at the reform school.

Like Antoine, Truffaut ran away from home when he was eleven, using an outrageous excuse to cover for himself. Instead of telling a lie about his mother’s death like Antoine does in the film, Truffaut once claimed that the Germans had arrested his father. Ironically, it was later revealed that his biological father—whom he never knew—was a Jewish dentist.

At eighteen, Truffaut met Roland Truffaut, whom his mother had married in 1933.

He saw the child as his responsibility. Antoine’s uneasy relationship with his adoptive father mirrors Truffaut’s own experiences. Truffaut’s father once turned the young François over to the police after he committed a petty theft.

Antoine Doinel is a mix of two fascinating personalities. Of sixty boys who responded to the casting call, Truffaut chose 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud. He was desperate for the role of an antisocial loner on the verge of rebellion. Truffaut encouraged him to improvise, letting him use his own words instead of sticking strictly to the script. The result captures exactly what Truffaut wanted: an emotionally raw and painfully authentic performance.

Truffaut does not follow a traditional coming-of-age story. Instead, he focuses on the everyday moments of Antoine’s life—a “slice of life” approach. Like Truffaut himself, he aims for a realistic portrayal of working-class youth, shooting on location and using naturalistic dialogue. This approach defines the New Wave in general. Yet, despite the free-flowing structure, Truffaut still provides a sense of order, often presenting things from a bird’s-eye perspective.

For instance, in one scene, students march in a line, but when the teacher looks away, they break free, running in different directions. Truffaut constantly plays with visual deception, just as Antoine gets lost in his adventures. The camerawork is elegant, with loose edits creating a sense of chaotic spontaneity. One striking moment takes the audience into a spinning carnival ride, mimicking a zoetrope effect—only for the illusion to shatter when Antoine spots his mother kissing another man.

The audience never sees it coming. In fact, The 400 Blows ends with one of the film’s most ambiguous final shots. However, the movie stands apart, not just as a New Wave classic but as a film that helped define the movement. Alongside Jules and Jim, it remains one of Truffaut’s most influential works.

In the end, Truffaut finally made the film he and his co-writers had dreamed of for years. However, it goes beyond its cultural roots—it still resonates with audiences worldwide. It is both deeply personal and universally relatable.

We cannot ignore that final shot if we talk about The 400 Blows and its realism. It is often praised for its ambiguity—a brief but haunting moment after everything that came before it. This closing image brings Truffaut and his audience face to face. There is intimacy and a feeling of being lost, uncertain of the way home. The freeze-frame on Antoine mirrors an earlier shot, like when he was first arrested. However, it feels more final this time, almost like a poetic symbol written on the wall.

Like many of Truffaut’s films, the sea at the end seems to wipe the slate clean, but not ultimately. There is no erasing the question that lingers—what happens to Antoine, and what has Truffaut himself found at the edge of the beach?

References

• Andrew, D. (1984). Truffaut’s New Wave: The 400 Blows revisited. Film Quarterly, 38(1), 2-11.
• Marie, M. (2003). The French New Wave: An Artistic School. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Neupert, R. (2010). Truffaut and the Limits of Cinematic Realism. Journal of Film and Video, 62(3), 24-37.
• Neupert, R. J. (2007). A History of the French New Wave Cinema (2nd ed.). University of Wisconsin Press.
• Sellier, G. (2008). Masculinity in Crisis? Antoine Doinel’s Uncertain Identity in The 400 Blows. Studies in French Cinema, 8(1), 5-17.
• Truffaut, F. (1985). The Films in My Life (L. Blau, Trans.). Da Capo Press.
• Truffaut, F. (Director). (1959). The 400 Blows [Film]. Les Films du Carrosse.
• Vincendeau, G. (1998). The Companion to French Cinema. BFI Publishing.
• Williams, A. (1992). Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking. Harvard University Press.