400 Blows - Art Imitates Life

Antoine is the main character in the film.  He is a young man boy roughly the age of 13.  Hus reality is that the people who should be caring for him, his mother and step-father (the only real father he has ever known), are more childish then responsible parents.  For example, we see Antoine come home from school.  He is a latchkey kid so he gets things ready for when his parents come home from their jobs.  He puts coal in the heater and sets the table for dinner.  Then he sits down to start on his homework.  Only a few minutes after starting his homework his mother comes home.  She shows no affection towards her son, but insteads ask him if he picked up the flour she asked him to get.  When Antoine says no, the mother is annoyed and asks why and where was the list she gave him.  He gives a rather typical kid response saying he lost it.  So she sends him on his way to the store to get some.  On his way back, he meets up with his father.  He is carrying a spot light.  he picked it up second hand and is going to use it for the auto club he belongs too.  It is as if the parents are the children.  They care more about their extracurricular activities like the dads auto club and the mothers affair then the child.  The mother "works late" instead of being home to help her child with his homework or have dinner ready and the father is out spending money if frivolous things like spot lights.  The money could be used to afford a bigger place so Antoine didn't have to sleep in the hall way. 

I am a stickler for black and white films.  For me, the use of contrast, highlights, lowlights, and shadow evokes feelings in a way that is very rarely achieved in color films. This was evident all through out Francois Truffaut's movie, 400 blows. 

The contrast between black and white can almost be exclusively related to the contrast of good and evil.  This is evident in both balk and white films and color.  The bad guy in the western movies always wore the black hat, the good guy wore white.  In Star Wars both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine wore black while Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker wore white.   

There are scenes in the movie that are specific to this contrast.  One example is that there is a shift between Antoine wearing a black sweater versus a white one.  In the beginning Antoine is wearing a black sweater and we see him get caught in class passing around a pin up.  The teacher punishes him by standing in the corner and when all the other kids go out to recess, he has to stay back.  During this time he partakes in some deviant behavior and writes some nonsensical verse on the wall.  This upsets the teacher even more so he gives Antoine even more homework. 

Antoine never gets around to finishing his homework.  The next day he and his friend skip school.  He needs an excuse in order to be allowed back in to class the following day.  When the teacher confronts him about why he was not in school Antoine states his mother died.  The teacher is shocked and gives him a pass. A classmates rats Antoine out to his parents and they show up in class to see if he is still there.  His father slaps him in front of his classmates.  After class Antoine tells his friend that he no longer feels he can live at home.  He decides to run away.  His friend sets him up in his uncles printing press and gives him some clothes.  This is where we see Antoine for the first time put on a white sweater.  It is as if he has a guilty conscience for what he has done and the white represents that innocence and guilt. 

Antoine jacket is a mix of dark gray and lighter gray.  This seems to represent the struggle that Antoine faces; he can be good and lack any attention or affection from his parents, or, he can be bad and at least get some sort off acknowledgement, even if it is negative like a beating it is something.

Another point in the movie where the contrast of light and dark happens not short after this shot.  People arrive at the printing press so Antoine leaves out in the night out of fear of being caught.  He is walking around trying to keep warm.  He comes across the milk delivery guy.  he delivers three cases of milk to a business.  Antoine steals a bottle.  He runs into a dark alley and hides out in a corner.  He pulls the milk out of his jacket.  The milk is extremely white against his jacket.  For me, milk is the first thing we get from out mothers.  When a mother feeds her baby, be it from the breast or the bottle, it is supposed to be a very intense bonding moment between mother and child.  This bond appears to be missing for Antoine.  The only time you really see his mother take interest is when he catches her kissing another man while he was skipping school.  This is the happiest you see Antoine.  When his mother talks to him and opens up a little bit about herself, and later, when they all go to the movie as a family. 

The theme of innocence was very prevalent for me all through out the movie.  This is largely due to the fact that there is a theme of lost innocence with the role reversal that takes place between Antoine's parents and himself.  It kind of made me sad to think that at such a young age that his one true time of feeling free, alive, with a world of possibilities laid before him was when he escaped the juvenile home and ended up at the ocean.  Only then did it seem that he was free to be who he wanted to be.  Sad to realize it took him being completely alone and vulnerable at such a young age to come to an understanding that this could be a fresh starting point for him to re-establish himself.