Introduction by Russell Banks and Serge Toubiana

When film critic François Truffaut was challenged to put into practice what he’d been preaching, he chose to tell the story of a 13-year-old wild child in Paris whose adventures were based on his own adolescence. Rejected or rebuffed by school, family, and community, young Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) sets out on his own, propelled toward one of the most famous of all movie endings: the legendary snapshot of a childhood on the brink. The 400 Blows marked the birth of Jean-Pierre Léaud as crown prince of the French New Wave, and of Truffaut as its runaway auteur.

Explore the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema brochure flipbook or read below. See the full lineup & schedule here.