The 400 Blows

Well I haven’t exactly counted but I believe this kid has probably had about 400 blows in his lifetime. As depicted in the Francois Truffaut’s somewhat autobiographical film, Antoine Doinel has had his share of struggles and setbacks. A strong theme in this French New Wave film is the blessing and curse of being a young child having to basically grow up and raise yourself. Although Antoine’s parents were physically present, they were often not present emotionally. Navigating your way through life with can be tricky even with supportive parents which unfortunately Antoine did not have.

Watching this film, I found myself coming to quick judgments about Antoine’s parents. Let’s take his mother for example. She bombards the audience with such mood swings that had even me feeling dizzy. One minute she is cold and aloof, the next she’s having a heart to heart with Antoine, encouraging him to study, and then again, proceeds to be mean and nasty. Alright, so maybe this kid is bringing on his own problems with his unruly behavior, after all he should be accountable like everyone else, right? That’s what I thought in the beginning of this film but after being introduced to his so called parents it didn’t take much for me to see things in another light.

It comes down to one word, trust. Antoine didn’t trust his parents to be open and honest with them. He chose to lie to them over silly things instead of taking a chance and being honest. He also chose to lie to his teacher by copying a paper because he didn’t have the guts to try and write his own. He had guts to do wrong things such as skip school or steal a typewriter. But you see these things were a mask. They were numbing the emotional pain he felt. Antoine didn’t want to try to write his own paper and fail. Putting yourself out there and being vulnerable is a scary thing. He didn’t want to disappoint himself and most of all I don’t think he wanted to disappoint his mother. It’s always easier to put up a wall that hinders people from knowing the real you then it is to be known and still rejected. Antoine would rather live in a world where he had control. He could manipulate how others saw him and reacted to him. It was comfortable to be the “bad” kid…the problem child. Because playing that game and losing is more tolerable than playing by the rules and still coming up short.

There is one person however, that Antoine chose to put his trust in and that was his friend René Bigey. It warmed by heart to see these two together. As much trouble as they got into there is nothing like the feeling of the bond of friendship and knowing that no matter what someone will always be there for you. It made me think back to a time when I was very young and had a friendship much like theirs. My friend and I have since parted ways but I always think back to that time in my life and smile.

Have there been times in your life when you trusted the wrong person, what were the consequences? What did you learn from that experience, have you used it to make yourself a better person?  I think one of the most important questions to ask yourself is what could you do if you simply put trust in yourself?