Understanding the creative characteristics of the French New Wave from "Four Hundred Strikes"

Angelita 2021-12-07 08:01:38

Four hundred blows, French proverb: Faire les quatre cents cuops. Translated, a naughty child has to be beaten four hundred times to eliminate disasters, timid demons, and become a healthy and obedient child. If you insist, this is roughly in line with China's "stick education".

This new wave of initiation work, which won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was officially recognized by critics for the first time, is about a 12-year-old who is overwhelmed by the "sticks" of family, school and society. A story full of scars.

The films of the authors of the New Wave, under the guidance of Bazin theory and the influence of Italian neorealist films, mostly record or show an event and some characters. As a result, there is a strong documentary nature, and many films have a strong personal biographical color. This is especially true of the "Four Hundred Strikes", which has a pioneering significance. The true story of the film is almost a portrayal of Truffau's own teenager.

Unlike the Left Bankists of the same period, New Wave works usually have nothing to do with politics, and basically do not have a major social aspect. There is no complete story frame in these works. The characters seem to come into the world with the wind, toss and turn in this world, and to drift away, and finally leave with the wind. The shooting of "Four Hundred Strikes" embodies this "stream of life" film proposition. In contrast to montage, Truffau never cuts the picture into pieces, nor does he guide the audience to choose or think. He just keeps it with a long lens. The picture is complete, and the things and plots within the camera's field of view are photographed faithfully, without any choice or evaluation, nor pursuing the logical and causal relationship between events. Take the case of Antoine stealing milk as an example. The camera pans to a dirty and dark street corner. Antoine, engulfed by the heavy night, is holding a glass bottle like a stray cat, carefully drinking the hard-won milk. It is customary to give a close-up shot to highlight what happened to the poor boy who was only 12 years old. But Truffaut did not. He did not use any lens to express with special emotion, nor did he use any lens to deliberately exaggerate. His shots never give mercy, only show truth. But it is this naturalism that pursues reality that makes "Four Hundred Strikes" an unparalleled and moving sincerity.

Since most of the creators of the New Wave are film critics of the "Movie Manual" magazine founded by Bazin, and most of them have not gone to a special film school or received special training, naturally there is no way to make "high-quality movies" like those who rely on qualifications to make their heads. The director also gets a lot of money. In addition, out of the pursuit of realism, New Wave works are usually shot in real scene, and a large number of natural sound environments are used to increase the realism of the works. In "Four Hundred Strikes", the noisy car whistling on the street, the noise of the children in the classroom, and the sound of the waves in the last scene are all real records on the scene.

Contrary to the traditional star system. Drawing on the way of non-professional actors in Italian neo-realism films and Marlon Brando's "performance without performance" style, the creators of the New Wave have used a large number of unknown young people as actors in their works. In the filming process, Truffau always emphasized draft-style improvisation, such as the famous "real movie" aesthetic psychological questioning. It is the photographic frame in front of Antoine, recording Antoine's conversation with the psychologist during the trial. In fact, it was an audition by Jean-Pierre Leold, and the questioner was Truffaut himself.

The most prominent feature of New Wave’s creation is its long shots and jumper editing methods. New wave editing cancels traditional methods such as occlusion, fade-in, fade-out, and fade-in. Instead, the shots are directly connected and fast editing is directly jumped. Just like when you cut a video, you don’t need to change the scene without adding any transition, and you can directly edit and adjust the rhythm of the movie. But compared to the old rival Godard's jump and quick editing, it is clear that Truffaut's use of long shots is more eye-catching. Take the classic ending of "Four Hundred Strikes" as an example. This stunning long shot has 4 parts: Antoine throws a football on the field, then runs through the fence and runs into the distance. This is mainly a panoramic overhead shot; It's a 1 minute and 20 second running and shooting. This lens has no music and uses natural sound. Accompanied by Antoine's running sound, we seem to be like this lonely teenager, and we will all depress our hearts. We will run away with him, escape the boring reality of the web, and run to the enviable freedom; next music As the sound gradually sounded, the camera began to shake to the left. After slowly swaying across the Seine, it once again aimed at Antoine's back running in the depths; the last shot was still running, Antoine ran down the steep ladder and ran all the way to On the beach, running towards the sea, the camera changes from panning to follow-up, and sceneries from panorama to panorama. Then he walked a few steps horizontally to the right, and suddenly turned to face the camera, the lens jerked, and the whole film was frozen on the close-up of Antoine's face. At this point, Antoine's confused and fragile eyes have been fixed in French cinema, and even in the history of world cinema. This meaningful and open ending is full of philosophical emptiness and depth, and has become a major symbol of the new wave.

The most incomprehensible part of "Four Hundred Strikes" probably lies in some tribute and imitation shots. For example, the section where the students slipped away in running exercises is a tribute to Jean Vigo's "Zero Points of Conduct"; the section where the children watched the puppet show refers to the shooting scene of the early film invention, especially the stage play of Mélière; Anto Wan’s worship and worship of Balzac, in addition to Truffau’s admiration for Balzac, also alluded to Bazin’s mourning; the last classic long shot is a direct tribute to Bazin’s film theory.

All in all, "Four Hundred Strikes" reveals the creative characteristics of the New Wave everywhere, and from any aspect is worthy of being called the representative of the French New Wave.

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Extended Reading
  • Clair 2021-12-07 08:01:38

    School, family, everything are reasons to escape. "Four hundred blows", desperately running toward the sea symbolizing freedom, but didn't want to be more difficult to move. Paris is particularly beautiful under Truffaut's lens, and the music is also very good. (TLF version of MiniSD subtitles are not good, but fortunately, some people have watched it dozens of times. It comes with a commentary audio track...)

  • Kris 2022-03-27 09:01:06

    Still like Joey in Little Fugitives, if the film's focus was on the educational system, parenting failures might be more appropriate.

The 400 Blows quotes

  • Examining Magistrate: I think we'd best put the boy in an observation center.

    Gilberte Doinel: Oh, could it be near the seashore, Your Honor?

    Examining Magistrate: It's not a vacation resort, ma'am.

  • Juvenile Delinquent: Every time I cried, my father would imitate me on his fiddle, just to drive me nuts. One day I got fed up and I knocked him out.