Lacks Bells and Whistles, But Still Worth It

Following the breathtaking success of The 400 Blows in 1959, François Truffaut toyed with the idea of documenting the life and times of its central character—Antoine Doinel—in a series of films. Between 1962 and 1979 his vision was realised, and this box set comprises all five chapters of the story.

Of the five titles, the second (Antoine and Colette) was made for TV, not cinema, and although it is an essential part of the series, it seems to have caused something of a curation headache.

There is a strong sense that it was rescued from the archives, for example, and as such the quality is not quite up there with the other four films—which are, by the way, excellent Blu-ray transfers. Secondly, because it’s only an hour long and was encoded at a lower bit-rate than the other films, it has been included as an extra on the third disc. So to watch the films in order, you have to jump from disc 1 to 3 (extra feature) to 2 back to 3 (main feature) then finally 4. This undoubtedly causes some buyers to initially watch the films in the wrong order.

I suppose the most disappointing thing about this box set is that the bare minimum was done before getting it into production. There are no booklets or tributary notes inside—just four Blu-rays in unusually thin cases. What’s more, the special features on the discs are minimal. A trailer and film length commentary on each one at the very least, and very short presentations—each no more than a few minutes long. My favourite extras are the 1958 screen tests with child actors Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan. I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat while watching, but still… they represent no more than six minutes of material.

To conclude, although I’ve always felt strongly that The 400 Blows should have been allowed to exist in isolation—to have not become part of a soap-operatic series—the films are nevertheless very good and an important part of French cinema history. With the exception of the first film, they will never be as celebrated as Truffaut landmarks like Shoot the Pianist, Jules & Jim, The Last Metro, etc., but I have owned this box set for a year now, I still watch the films for enjoyment from time to time and I consider them an essential part of my collection.