GROWING UP IS A RUNAWAY STORY.

A restless Parisian boy navigates school, home, and authority figures who seem determined to misunderstand him. Small rebellions accumulate, pushing him further toward isolation and toward a defining break from the world around him.

François Truffaut’s first feature premiered at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Director, The 400 Blows announced the arrival of a new cinematic voice and a new movement. Deeply personal yet universally resonant, the film sensitively recreates the trials of Truffaut’s own difficult childhood and became a defining work of the French New Wave. This 4K restoration offers an opportunity to experience it with renewed clarity.

Selected for Letterboxd Video Store by guest curator Richard Linklater

In French with English subtitles available.