YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdXTtX_cz3s
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Introduction
In studying a film that is widely regarded as a ‘classic’, there’s typically find a wealth of discourse about it and The 400 Blows directed by Francois Truffaut is exemplary in this regard. Francois Truffaut seeks to take a new approach to filmmaking in terms of subject and style.
Before we consider the film specifically, let’s lay out some foundational concerns.
Contexts
Every film reflects the concerns of its time, the particular way of looking at the world in that culture, that society, that time. To fully understand a film, you need to know something of the era that spawned it. As you will have already considered in your Edusites Core Units, film is very much a cultural artifact, a reflection of the society that created and watched it. Each film is influenced by all of the films that have gone before it – the collective consciousness of how we ‘look’ at a film - and will have specific conventions that link it to others of its genre, its type. For your examination, an understanding of the film’s production and of events in the world at that time will offer perspectives on how to better view its narrative presentation and thematic concerns. More importantly, you will learn how its use of film language and film…
