400 Blows (Les Quatre cents coups)

In the opening scene, there were a few key clues as to the general mood of the film. These included the natural low lighting and the gritty, dirty scenes of the city of paris.

The child, Antoine, on first appearance is just show to be a bit of a Delinquent in school, the joker of the class. Just a bit further in the film however shows a deeper side of his life. His mother clearly is very hard on him whether its because she dislikes him or just cant be bothered to deal with him shows that maybe he misbehaves for the attention he receives as a consiquence. His mother also seems to use the child as a deflect for her own guilt, often when she is put under pressure for her own actions she brings up something about Antoine to shift the pressure from herself onto him, shown in the scene after he see's the afair when she claims to have been driven home by her boss. When clearly its obvious she is having an affair.

There are alot of long shots showing lonliness and how this child who appears so hard on the outside really feels about his life. He has one friend in the beginning who almost seems to guide him in his "quest" for freedom. Ironically, he gets taken to a behaviour correction facility which is ironic because in his jouney for freedom he is actually locked up.

During the film towards the missle, the two parents switch roles of authority, the father at the beggining appears to be more on the childs side rather then the hard mothers, yet there comes a point in the film where the father enters the childs school and slaps him in the face for "bunking off school". From that point forward the mother almost seems to love the child unconditionally defending his every action. Whether this was to protect herself from the deception she has been involved with from her husband is another matter.

At some points during the film there were a few "mismatched" or music which seemed unappropriate. For example when the child was being taken away, the music seemed more happy and giddy then depressing which the scene clearly was.

There seemed to be quite a few reaction shots or close ups, when the child seemed unphased by what was happening around him. When his mother was telling the father to place the child under the care of an orphanage, there was a close shot of the child and the child facial expressions didn't seem to change at all, they just seemed like his usual miserable same expression.