Truffaut's 400 Blows truly does work along with Astruc's maxim that the camera (and its other mechanics) can be a pen.
Oh yeah.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
400 BLOWS
Oh yeah. Using the camera to tell story: opening scene's flowing camera allowing action to happen rather than be constructed. Using framing devices to tell about character: as when Antoine is in the jail cell after they bring in the prostitutes; the film's final shot. Using editing to divulge more psychology than words can do on their own: scene with the unseen psychologist in the detention center.
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In The 400 Blows, Truffaut exemplifies the maxim of the camera-as-pen. A largely autobiographical film, The 400 Blows uses this technique to relate Antoine Doinel's journey through adolescence.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, Truffaut employs the camera to tell the story of Antoine's relationship with his parents. Even when he's at home, Antoine is still isolated from the world, and the camera is used here to emphasize the distance between himself and his family. As his parents bicker in another room, Antoine lies helplessly in bed. Although physically separated from his parents, the way the camera frames him in close-up suggests that he is alienated emotionally as well, suffocating in his small space and powerless to stop the disintegration of his parents' marriage. The use of camerawork here illustrates the hopeless environment that Antoine is trapped in.
In the final scene, Truffaut's camera follows Antoine as he runs towards the sea. The camera establishes Antoine Doinel as being at a crossroads in his young life. He has escaped from the detention center, but at what cost? As the camera takes in the full effect of the deserted beach, we come to understand the enormity of the situation, the chain of events that have brought our protagonist to this moment. As the camera pans from left to right, we see that Antoine is--once again--utterly alone.
I feel like any viewer can take any scene from The 400 Blows that involves Antoine and almost completely feel the emotions that this youthful character portrays. The way Truffaut captures these feelings of loneliness, abandonment, rebellion, etc. establishes his ability to write with the camera. To me, that is what makes this movie so special in being able to relate to it.
ReplyDeleteTo touch upon the ending, it reminded me of the ending of The Graduate. After Hoffman's character runs away with the bride, the both of them are in the taxi in an ecstatic moment then slowly they turn solemn at the thought of "What next?" That is how I feel about how the camera freezes on Antoine's face. All of the moments leading up to this action have shaken Antoine in every direction as he can't seem to find his place in the world. What is his next step in life? What consequences will he face? It's as if all of the choices he has made in the span of the film come to him full force in the form of the question Antoine begs of the audience "Why is life torturing me this way?"
I'm always a fan of lack of editing, that is to say long takes, and the impact they have within a film. At the end of the film, when Antoine escapes the correctional facility he's in, there is a long take of him running as the camera travels alongside him. He's placed in the center of the screen although you could call his movement left to right. Again the same shot occurs when he is running on the beach and eventually the camera pans when Antoine reaches the water. These shots remind me a lot of what Peter Jackson did in The Lord of the Rings trilogy in which the hobbits move left to right over the course of the entire three films. Jackson's use of left to right represents the characters journey and I think Truffaut uses it similarly. The long takes of Antoine moving left to right represent his immediate freedom and are very emotional because little action takes place and nothing is spoken in such time. But they also stand for a great journey and choices that lay ahead. Those same tracking shots are unique and stand out from any other in the film. I believe those shots (and how they don't pull away from the boy) bring us closer to Antoine. We can't see far outside the frame and we have as little an idea of where he is running as he actually does. The style feels like the beginning of a film, not the end. But because it's the end, the shots can only point to a long, unknown, action-filled future.
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ReplyDeleteTo continue that thread of Antoine’s “environment”: It’s interesting how space is used in this film. Truffaut claims that he wasn’t necessarily interested in the “scenery” so much as his characters on film, but it’s almost impossible to separate the two. Antoine’s environment is horrifically claustrophobic. Whether it’s his tiny bedroom (really the hallway of the apartment), the crowded classroom, or eventually the tiny individual cell he’s given separate from the prostitutes and the other mug, his life is nightmarishly confined. This further reinforces the melancholy associations that accompany his brief stints at freedom. The scenes of him in the carnival ride are simultaneously joyful and sorrowful, primarily because such happy moments in his life are fleeting.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the film, the space “opens” up to include images of the country as Antoine makes his escape, and finally, the ocean, which Antoine has never seen. These scenes should encapsulate freedom, of openness. Yet, through the black and white “winter” landscape, the tracking shot of Antoine running across the beach (the sand almost looks like a “moving sidewalk”), and finally the frozen image of Antoine staring at the camera, these “widened” spaces offer a new terror that Andrew Lee rightly observed: now that Antoine finally has his freedom, what’s next? These last images provide more uncertainty then actual comfort.
I like how you get the feeling of loneliness and uncertainly about Antoine at the end of the film. In the last scene on the beach you see that no one else is on the beach and that Antoine is alone. The close up of his face give the feeling of uncertainly. It’s different than most Hollywood films because there isn’t a sense of closer/happy ending. The view is left wondering what going to happen to Antoine now.
ReplyDeleteLike Astruc, Truffaut camero stylo is idealistic in 400 Blows. His shots are effective, in which I believe, by using all of the shots to add up for the famous final shot. The shot when he is behind the bars in the holding cell, allows the audience to see his confinement. This symbolizes with his life. Before he started to rebel he was with Rene' he was already stereotyped which didn't allow him to be free and open-minded as a kid. Once he attempted to be released from his confinement (during his rebellious encounters) he is once again confined literally by being put in a juvenile camp. This scene is just one, very effective camero stylo, which leads to the famous final shot. The next scene, right before the last shot of him running tells a story within himself. He is once again breaking free of his confinement. The shot of him running has an anesthetic rhythm. This alone allows the audience to understand Antoine with out any narration. The panning of the camera is the "cherry on top". This on going panning movement with out any cuts is an expression that is seen and understood visibly.
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