The 400 Blows poster

The 400 Blows (1959)

Film · 1h 39m · In French

Drama, Foreign (non-English)

A neglected Parisian boy navigates a gritty world of adult indifference, yearning for a better life.

Melancholy and intimate. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Max, Kanopy (free), YouTube (free), Plex (free) and Tubi (free).

The 400 Blows parents guide

There is no US rating to lean on. What we tagged stays mild: some violence and mild language.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
None flagged
It has no US rating to check against, so treat our zero as unconfirmed.
Language
Mild
Mild words like damn, hell or crap.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is The 400 Blows about?

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves the ending open to interpretation.

Cast and crew

Directed byFrançois Truffaut
StarringJean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay, Robert Beauvais

More like The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows is on our Coming of age, French, Classics (pre-1970), Drama on Max and Tubi lists.

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Lists with the same feel: Melancholy.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.