I watched Francois Truffaut's 400 Blows (1959) yesterday, an exquisite film to look at, but a difficult one to contemplate. See how schools fail those unmanageable, unmotivated students. Harsh discipline is meted out in a classic case of insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This was late fifties Paris but it could have been 21st century America. I've been out of the biz since 2008 so who knows, by now public schools may have figured out how to turn errant young people into model students (and perhaps pigs have mastered the art of flight). To be fair, school discipline became more progressive and effective (if only just) during my time and I imagine that improvement has continued apace. But ultimately the problem has a lot to do with the basic structure of schools. Young people are not meant to be gotten up at the crack of dawn then cooped up in rooms (that can have the feel -- I daresay sometimes even the look) of prisons and being fed a lot of information they don't care a whit about and seems irrelevant. Society keeps reforming schools when a revolution is in order. Still, teachers are dedicated people with high ideals and a strong sense of duty and are amazingly successful against terrific odds.
Educators have finally figured out that merely meting out punishment doesn't work. Rewards systems have been put in place and they are more successful -- if barely.
One of the problems, as we see in the film, is the notion of suspending students for there misdeeds. On the face of it, it's a ridiculous idea. You are keeping out of school the very people who most need to be there. Suspended students are generally the ones who are behind in their studies, suspension only sets them further back. For a short time the school I taught in had in-house suspension. This was much better as students were thus not a burden on working parents nor likely to be roaming the streets. They were supervised and given classwork to do. A good solution, right? But it was eliminated because the majority of students serving the suspensions were African American so it "looked bad." In other words, let's pretend that a problem that exists doesn't exist. We went back to sending students home when suspended. Of course.
In The 400 Blows our young protagonist, Antoine, is a thief and a liar. Like many young people who struggle with authority, his home life is not ideal. Mom, who is on her second marriage, is having an affair, something our protagonist discovers while playing hooky. More concerning, she's indifferent to her son. Step-dad is okay as long as everything is peachy but when Antoine gets out of line he responds harshly. The boy is in a vicious cycle both at home and school. His teacher cares about his charges but shows it through unyielding discipline and zero tolerance.
The more he is punished, the more defiant Antoine becomes. The more he fails the more he accepts failure as his due. The angrier adults get at him, the more sullen and disagreeable he comes. Lies lead to more lies. Punishments don't change attitudes, they harden them. Vicious cycles.
Antoine's naturally gravitates towards boy who are similarly ambivalent about school. This is common and natural. Vicious cycles. Antoine's defiance is buttressed by similarly inclined lads and by the time he is sent to an observation center for troubled youths, after an overnight stay in jail (not juvey either, adult jail) he's got even more peer influences to lead him further astray. Vicious cycles.
We are left to wonder about Antoine's future after the film's iconic closing shot. It's likely bleak but there are stories aplenty of troubled youths "turning their life around" to offer some hope. After all, he seems a bright lad, certainly resourceful. Absent serious intellectual deficits and being a true sociopath, there's a fighting chance.*
The truth is that the world has never been kind to youth who don't toe the line. The line can be a delicate one to walk for youngsters with rebellious streaks. I had one of my own but it manifest more in partaking of drugs and alcohol at a young age, which somehow never impinged on my academic achievements -- which were significant given my proclivity to buck the system.
As I said at the outset, The 400 Blows is a beautiful film to look at. The opening shots of Paris alone are magnificent. The overhead view from roofs and windows of a class out on a jaunt in which students gradually all peal away from their instructor is masterful. Paris is rendered beautifully in black and white, always looking inviting despite the nature of the story being told.
The 400 Blows is, to me, one of Truffaut's troika of masterpieces along with Shoot the Piano Player (1960) and Jules et Jim (1962). Like a lot of great films it works so well because it is personal. Much of what happens in it mirrors Truffaut's own youthful experience. Of our pain we can make art.
* Antoine appears in several later films from Truffaut as an adult and I'm happy to say he's doing all right.
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