400 blows is a French New Wave film about Antoine Doinel’s life as he does increasingly more mischievous acts that eventually lead to him committing actual crimes like stealing. The film is based on the director François Truffaut’s own life as a young boy and is his first feature length film. In the film, Antoine’s parents don’t show him any affection and in is often punished for breaking the rules. His distaste for school leads to him skipping school. The second time, however, he was caught and gets in trouble with his parents. His embarrassment makes him decide to run away from home, though his mother changes his mind and even tries to make him a better student by making a deal with him to incentivize him.
After it seems that he is trying to do better, it is found that an essay he turned was plagiarized and is subsequently suspended from school. This time he decides to run away from home for good. Him and his friend decide to start stealing to make money and live a life where they won’t have to deal with their parents or the school. He is caught when he tries steal his father’s typewriter and is arrested for it. He is put in a juvenile detention center, where his mother comes and tells him that she will no longer take care of him. Seeing that he has no one left in his life, he escapes the detention center and runs off to the beach, where the film ends with a freeze frame as Antoine looks directly at the camera.
As this is the first time Antoine has seen the beach, the end could symbolize Antoine venturing out into the unknown, as he will have to in life now that everyone in him life has left him.
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