François Truffaut’s Nouvelle Vague classics. I Love it~
Story: 14 year old boy Antoine Doinel is neglected and unloved at home and undermined at school. He skipped school with his best friend to have fun and engaged in petty crimes. When Antoine was caught stealing his father’s typewriter, he was sent to delinquent correction center…
The boys wanted to live their own life, but their striving for freedom only led to more constrains and confinement …bounded by responsibility, consequences and social labeling. This is classic teen angst masterfully done with class and honesty that just feel so personal and touching. The child actor Jean-Pierre Léaud is so wonderful~~ the anger, emotions and rebellion spirit are very subtly conveyed on his poker but solemn face, so rare to see such maturity and depth in a boy.
My favorite sequence is definitely the PE class part depicting the young boys falling out of social/adult conformity. The PE teacher, blowing his whistle in rhythm, led the class of boys jogging through the city of Paris. In a brilliant long aerial shot, we see the boys who were jogging behind stolen themselves out of line two by two, until there’s only 2 students left behind the teacher (who’s not aware the students were all gone), that was just so cute and hilarious!
I also like the sequence where Antoine and his friend went to the circus and played in this spinning wheel thing (what’s it called? You stand inside a circular room and it’d spinned so fast that you’re suspended in mid-air without gravity). The beautiful but somewhat haunting hypnotic spinning sequence depicts a momentary drunken feeling of freedom.
Another sequence is when Antoine made a secret shrine for Balzac as his private spiritual sanctuary, but it caught on fire. Instead of scolding him, his parents forgave him and the whole family went out and spend a fun night at movies. They laughed all the way until they’re back at their small poor cramped apartment…back to reality. This is the only true happy moment in the film, which made their laughters the more heart-breaking.
The final sequence have Antoine escaped the correction center. He kept on running, he ran and ran and ran…finally ran to the beach and saw the sea that he’d never saw before. Then it freeze frame at this moment. Very cathartic.
mintyalice
