The 400 Blows

A movie about a difficult teenager – although no, it would be more correct to call the adults around him difficult.

The first film by Francois Truffaut, partly autobiographical. Francois himself was an illegitimate son, grew up with his mother and stepfather and dropped out of school at the age of 14: «For me, childhood is a series of painful memories. Now, when I feel bad, I say to myself: "I am an adult. I can only do what I like." But then childhood seemed like the hardest phase of life, when you were not allowed to make mistakes. It was criminal to make a mistake: you break a plate by mistake and it's a real crime».

And it is also one of the key (and first) films of the «French new wave» - the movement of young critics and directors who opposed «daddy's cinema».