Visual Style of the 400 Blows

The 400 blows was François Truffaut's film debut and was part of the French new wave movement. Many elements of the film attest to that. For example, the fact that it was shot in black and white. It uses raw sound, meaning that all of the sound is natural and not edited. For example, there are many shots of the main character, Antoine, where you can hear him dragging his feet around his apartment. The audience can also hear the sound of feet on concrete when he runs up and down the stairs in a tizzy. There is also my personal favorite, the sound of children writing and turning pages in their notebooks. It amplifies the natural sound of the world around you. Other elements of French new wave in the film are many close up and panning shots and of course the ambiguous ending.