595. The Genius of François Truffaut: The 400 Blows

Truffaut's award-winning first feature is often regarded as one of the great masterworks in all of cinema. In this first in a series of five films chronicling the life of Truffaut's alter ego, Antoine Doinel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud), Truffaut memorializes key events in his own childhood: forging notes from his parents to play hooky from school; plagiarizing Balzac; stealing from his father's office; spending a night in jail with a cell full of prostitutes; and being shipped off to reform school. Beautifully photographed on location in the streets of 1959 Paris, the film remains a major landmark in the history of cinema, as compelling today as when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where Truffaut won for Best Director and was hailed as a leader of the French New Wave. A lively discussion will follow the screening. In French with English subtitles.