tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post1241421881144262337..comments2023-09-06T01:53:41.634-07:00Comments on doug's Site: The 400 Blows (1959) directed by Francois Truffaut Doug's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09219952832674415239noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-31013293711024292032010-12-04T19:34:55.000-08:002010-12-04T19:34:55.000-08:00Louis Malle's French work I admit I haven'...Louis Malle's French work I admit I haven't about to yet, AA. I did see a lot of his English-language work, of which "My Dinner With Andre" (1981), the semi-notorious "Pretty Baby" (1977) and the off-beat drama "Atlantic City" (1980) are his most famous. <br />Having just looked up the synposis for "Lacome Lucien" I seeits a film I have to put near the top of my list. Malle experienced the fascist occupation as a youngster and I imagine his intimate feel for the subject is even more straight on than his keen understanding of life on the fringes of American society. <br /><br />That's one of the excellent things about "400 Blows" for me; it comes back to you as a real experience in so many scenes. You feel you know this boy as you would a kid in thesame class with you or who lived on the same block or apartment house. This is not like say an adaptation of Dickens' "Oliver Twist" --not that I'm disrespecting Dickens, but he was a giant talent of another sort--with Fagin and Bill Sikes making life miserable for our sweet little lad, Oliver and his crew of fellow corruptibles. Antoine, as you well put it, is an example of a charaacter breakling through the morality play of stage drama or film to a fuller dimension--seeing a part of a life being lived inallits messiness and ennui and occasional excitement as opposed to being pulled from one scene to another by even the best of cinema or literary showmen(women).doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-89653052018656342232010-12-04T09:30:38.000-08:002010-12-04T09:30:38.000-08:00I love these French films, although I never saw th...I love these French films, although I never saw this one Doug. They used to show quite a lot of these films on Channel 4 when it first started in the 1980s....I saw some brilliant French cinema on TV back then and films like Louis Malle's autobiographical film 'Lacombe Lucien' which remains one of my all time favourite films.<br /><br />I was very impressed by the moral ambiguities in the movie, the messy lack of symmetry in lives set against the backdrop of historical "throwness" and the situation that they find themselves in. No black and white goodies versus baddies morality play here, but something far more subtle, appalling and amazing than that, it has the stamp of authenticity to me ,<br /><br />This looks another great film with that same bitter-sweet taste of real existence that steadfastly refuses to transport us to a more comforting place for our cinematic catharsis.<br /><br />Thanks for posting the clip Doug, another film to watch out for as I scan the cultural horizons looking for something, that is never that far away from my own reality, that I forget I'm watching a film in the first place.Aaran Aardvarkhttp://aaranaardvark.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-56925999816785103792010-12-01T21:33:02.000-08:002010-12-01T21:33:02.000-08:00I think you have a good point, Jacquie, one I hadn...I think you have a good point, Jacquie, one I hadn't considered. <br /><br /> It takes maturity to appreciate just how special some books and films really are.doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-74724492975902280412010-12-01T21:13:22.000-08:002010-12-01T21:13:22.000-08:00Another one I've never heard of! Glad you enjo...Another one I've never heard of! Glad you enjoyed it.<br />If you had seen it as a teenager, you might not have appreciated it as much!Jacquie Howardhttp://lonelifebonded.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-42424082094045459112010-12-01T19:09:39.000-08:002010-12-01T19:09:39.000-08:00This amazing scene of children watching a puppet s...This amazing scene of children watching a puppet show comes at the point where Antoine and his friend plot a heist involving the theft of a typewriter out of his father's office.doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.com