"The Four Hundred Blows" movie review

Britney 2022-04-20 09:01:41

A French proverb says that it takes four hundred beatings for a naughty and naughty child to get rid of the disaster, to get rid of the devil, and to become a healthy and obedient child.

The blows experienced by the protagonist little boy in the film include: 1. At school, the teacher's harshness; 2. At home, the stepfather and mother's indifference. But this does not become a reason for the youth to be depraved and willful.

In two aspects:
1. During adolescence, the world outlook, outlook on life, and values ​​have not yet been formed. Can't be too harsh.

2. The predicament faced by the male protagonist is not cruel. If it is cruel, then the nerves of French teenagers are too fragile.

In fact, many children in China now face a similar situation.

Taking me as an example, when I was in junior high school, it was no longer the teacher who blamed the students. The students scoffed at random in class, ignored the discipline in class, fell in love, fought, smoked and drank, and even developed to the point of hitting the teacher. The teacher's rebuke in the film is not unreasonable, once because the male protagonist was naughty in class, once because the male protagonist plagiarized his composition, and once because the male protagonist skipped class and lied. There is an old saying in China that "a strict teacher produces a great apprentice", which is not without reason. Now we advocate quality education all day long. What exactly is quality education? Is it possible to let children go and not learn knowledge is quality education? Generally speaking, children like interesting things, but less in science and engineering, such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry. If quality education is promoted blindly, students will not like to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry. What about scientific development? What about the job market demand?

We don't live in a fairy tale world, this is the real world. If it's cruel and youthful like this movie, it's too hypocritical. Even if you enter the society, you don't have to go through all kinds of hardships and bump into walls everywhere.

In addition, the male protagonist's family environment, the father's temper is not good, and the mother cheats, these are not too serious problems. The stepfather is not very violent, and he is more supportive of the child's reading. He hit the child twice at school because the child skipped class and lied. My mother cheated and my parents were not around since I was a child. All these depend on my strong self-regulation ability to make up for it.

I understand the psychology of the children in the film. Faced with unsatisfactory situations and unsatisfactory living environments, I feel confused, helpless, and uncomfortable, so I choose to escape and pursue freedom. These are very similar to my experiences.

But again, life is not perfect, life is that we have to face these imperfections, and then try our best to make tomorrow a little better. Is it because the past is unsatisfactory, the cans are broken and let loose?

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I say this, not to blame the protagonist, after all, he is still a child, he is underage, his thinking is immature, and his behavior is understandable.

But because of this film, we cannot criticize schools, adult dogmatism, and imprisoning ideas, and advocate the protagonist's pursuit of freedom and facing the sea.

In fact, the protagonist's behavior was wrong, he was given a moment of freedom, but what did he do? He steals, and what does he face? Prison disaster. Even if he gets out of prison, where is his future? It is conceivable that if this development continues, no changes are made, and progress is not made, the future will still be theft, wandering like a street gangster, and the final destination will be prison.

The educational mechanism, tutoring, and criminal law institutions of this society are not so in line with the aesthetics of literary and artistic youth, but they are practical. Excessive "literature and art", excessive pursuit of freedom and self-indulgence, will make people degenerate. Because it is difficult for human reason to fight against the animal side of itself, and letting it run its course will lead to depravity. This is human nature.

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Italian neorealism advocates "taking the camera to the street to shoot", advocating improvisational arrangement of stories according to the environment and improvisation by non-professional actors, paying more attention to the lives of the people at the bottom, in short, to restore the truth The appearance of life, abandoning false and contrived commercial films, is highly praised by the new wave spiritual mentor Andre Bazin in the pursuit of restoring authenticity (documentary style) (the basis for the long-shot theory), which is also reflected in in many New Wave films. However, the general political character of Italian neorealism is not possessed by the New Wave, which is more about the personal expression of the author's heart.

Therefore, this movie is not a movie that outputs values, or in other words, if the author is exporting values, it is a bad movie, because it outputs the wrong values.

I think of it as a film about the phenomenon of youth, it just tells, doesn't judge. Just like "Norwegian Forest", it just tells about the youth that he once experienced.

So 3 stars, 7 points.

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Extended Reading

The 400 Blows quotes

  • Julien Doinel: Look at your little flour boy here.

    Gilberte Doinel: That's not funny!

    Julien Doinel: I thought it was.

  • Julien Doinel: She's right. There's a time and place for everything.