CIN101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: The 400 Blows, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut
Document Summary
Francois truffaut: the 400 blows (1959) Meandering plots with digressions and tangents (art cinema) Highly mobile, often handheld camera: clair cameflex. Opposition to mainstream french cinema (& traditional french culture: foregrounding of style. Abrupt shifts in angle/distance of the camera: abrupt shifts in tone and uneven pacing, ambiguous characterization (art cinema) Characters as "types" and as pawns of the director. Steers the viewer"s attention to the formal processes. Opposed to mainstream stylistic conventions and/or traditional social conventions. E. g. nature of consciousness, perception, or memory. Offer the viewer a heightened awareness of the very form and structure of cinema. Postmodern style: blatant artifice of film world, self-contained. Odd striking places of placing the camera. Low angle shots towards the characters: takes place in interior, enclosed places. Postmodern narrative: non-linear and disjointed plot. Split by chapters with new characters and new scenes. Same characters are not seen together until the 16th shot. Characters are constantly caught off guard, off balance.
