It is said that the four hundred strikes are similar to the Chinese stick to bring out the dutiful son.
In my opinion, the structure of the whole film is a gradual alternation of bound and free states.
Antoine in the first part lives in the double bondage of education and family. And this bondage is not suffocating, freedom still exists. If truancy hadn't been kept secret, if he hadn't seen his mother hugging other men on the street, if his teacher had changed his attitude towards his adoration of Balzac. If, perhaps as long as there is one match, he will not go to the opposite side of this bondage - in fact, he did not want to break this bondage himself, but unfortunately when returning the stolen printer, got caught. But from another point of view, the direction of his life cannot simply be attributed to this series of coincidences. Just as the probability of a careless person throwing things must be greater than that of a careful person, it is his nature and these seemingly coincidental things that actually contain many inevitable factors that make him seem forced to break these shackles helplessly. .
So relative freedom ended completely, and he ushered in complete bondage. He shed tears through the car window, which was separated by iron bars, as he was transferred from a cubicle in the detention center to at least the detention center. He understands what he has lost, he understands what awaits him. Childhood seems to end at this moment. He no longer has the choice to go to school or skip class, he can no longer recklessly enjoy childhood with his best friends, and he can't even sneak behind while running. In his life, there is no longer the possibility of challenging the established rules. The cruel rules require him to obey completely. However, he had a second option after all. The kid who escaped and was finally caught back said, at least I played for five days. Perhaps from that moment on, he wanted to escape completely.
Obviously, his escape was not for the purpose of hanging out for five days. You see him running, seemingly tireless. You look at the footprints he left on the beach, and you look at his expression when he saw the sea. He once said to his good friend, I have never seen the sea. This time he saw, in a state he himself had perhaps never imagined, standing in front of the boundless sea. Then the screen freezes. FIN. This is the infinite freedom that comes from escaping absolute bondage. For him, the unknown has always contained infinite possibilities, rather than being caught in a difficult situation because of the uncertainty of the future.
What happened later, probably only Truffaut himself can see the clear point. It's actually a complete, given story. When Truffaut made this film dedicated to Bazin, he must have been able to clearly see the path he had come. So I prefer the sea to represent hope, infinite possibilities, rather than confusion.
Because Truffaut became Truffaut, instead of embarking on the path of life that continued to degenerate and sink from the juvenile detention center.
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