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The 400 Blows

Original title: Les quatre cents coups · Turkish title: 400 Darbe

“Angel faces hell-bent for violence.”

1959 · 1 h 39 min
Directed by François Truffaut
CrimeDrama

Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud Claire Maurier Albert Rémy

Credits

Written by: François Truffaut

Plot

Antoine Doinel, a twelve-year-old Parisian boy, is neglected by his mother and stepfather and misunderstood by his teacher. He skips school, steals and lies, and his small acts of rebellion lead him to a juvenile detention centre. François Truffaut's 1959 debut, drawn from his own childhood, with Jean-Pierre Léaud, helped launch the French New Wave, and ends with an unforgettable freeze-frame of the boy on the beach.

Sinekatalog’s take

Truffaut's semi-autobiographical debut follows a neglected Paris schoolboy. It launched the French New Wave, and the final freeze-frame on Jean-Pierre Léaud's face is one of cinema's most famous endings.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.0 / 10 (135,743 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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