Why You Should Watch The 400 Blows (with composer Tara Creme)

11 Mar

Funfairs, truancy and typewriters: it's time to discuss a bonafide classic, Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Joining me for this conversation is Tara Creme, a film composer whose previous credits include documentaries Seahorse and March for Dignity. Tara’ brings her personal journey into cinema to this discussion, making for a fascinating conversation.

Transcript:

00:00:02:01 - 00:00:12:27
Will
Hi. I'm Will Webb, and this is why you should watch. In this episode, we're discussing Francois Truffaut's 1959 film, The 400 Blows.

00:00:17:06 - 00:00:40:29
Will
In this classic coming of age film, young Antoine bunks off school and runs around Paris, returning home to a chaotic domestic situation that he yearns to escape. Joining me for this conversation is Tara Creme, a film composer whose previous credits include documentaries Seahorse and March for Dignity. Tara brings her personal journey into cinema to this discussion, making for a fascinating conversation.

00:00:42:00 - 00:00:42:28
Will
Hi, Tara. How you doing?

00:00:43:14 - 00:00:44:29
Tara
Hi. I'm well, thanks. How are you?

00:00:45:17 - 00:01:12:19
Will
So well. And the thing I left out about that, about you there in that plotted intro is that we've actually worked together on a project as well, which is how I know you so, me and Tara did something I think that's probably quite different to a lot of the rest of your work. A Very like a dodgy is like kind of sampling leads electronic music for a fake BBC magazine show for a short film last year, which was a very fun project and very different for me too, I should say.

00:01:12:21 - 00:01:33:09
Will
We're talking today about like an absolute all time classic movie, much more so than some of the other stuff that we featured here. But it's great to touch on this, these real classic stuff, which is Lazy 59 Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, which I'm reliably informed is actually a really badly translated title. It's not so much as these like hits this kid gets in French.

00:01:33:09 - 00:01:54:09
Will
I think the title means more something like the 400 tricks, the tricks that are played on him, I guess. So we've got this kind of classic to talk about, and it's actually one that I had never watched. I knew very little about going in. Despite all the movies I've seen. Somehow I've managed to leave this off the list, and it'd be great to kick off by talking about how you came to the movie and kind of.

00:01:55:02 - 00:01:59:20
Will
Was it a recommendation for you? Was it one of those like thousand one films to watch before you die type things?

00:02:00:12 - 00:02:28:11
Tara
No, I was really lucky. I had I did French A-level when I was young. And it wasn't going very well. My French, I loved it was hard. It was really hard. We did. We had. But it improved when along with learning about the road system and the wine of Burgundy, we learn films of Truffaut. And it was just this fantastic syllabus which totally turned me on to film.

00:02:28:25 - 00:02:54:00
Tara
And we so I think what we've got to do is we've got to watch the films. All of his films, pretty much in with subtitles and then wrote about it in French. And there were themes like I remember the, the sort of exam themes were things like the role of children and the films of truth or the role of women in the films and Truffaut, things like that.

00:02:54:14 - 00:03:34:25
Tara
And I, I don't actually remember that it was just part of the syllabus, so we would have watched that. And yeah, totally. It saved my French A-level because I suddenly suddenly loved French and kind of studied French really through French cinema. And I used to it just completely turned me on to film and I used to go the used to be the everyman cinema in Hampstead before it got old Posh used to be this kind of rundown, lovely little repertory cinema, and you used to be able to go there and have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and watch double and triple bills.

00:03:34:25 - 00:03:41:22
Tara
French On a monday afternoon. I don't know. I'm not sure if I was at school or if I had the afternoon off. So but it was very.

00:03:41:23 - 00:03:43:15
Will
Moving and talking with friends did.

00:03:43:16 - 00:03:53:12
Tara
Yes, I was travelling and so on. Whether it's when I was going over there to watch. Yeah, double and triple bills. So that's how I got into, that's how I got to watch the film.

00:03:53:15 - 00:04:10:20
Will
A triple bill is a serious bit of film going. I've never done a triple bill. I've done double bills, and I've sometimes played with the idea of going to the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square to see their like five film overnight screenings. But I cannot I don't think I could do that. I mean, I could sit still for as much as I like a long movie.

00:04:10:27 - 00:04:13:06
Will
I think five different movies is too much for me to get it.

00:04:13:12 - 00:04:34:26
Tara
Yeah, I think the triple bills were quite rare thing. Double bills I did often, but I remember once going to the well, there was one in Kings Cross for a scholar. Yeah, this I remember seeing all night there. But yeah, that was kind of mayhem, really. Everyone was just smoking at the back or people falling asleep in the aisles.

00:04:34:26 - 00:04:40:15
Tara
That was. Yeah, I think I kind of went there late or something. It was. It's too much. Five films the night.

00:04:40:15 - 00:04:57:18
Will
The the school is famous for that stuff isn't it. The I remember going to a talk with one of the guys who ran it, Nick Powell, who unfortunately died last year. And he said the worst thing that they had happened there was that one guy just died in the back row during an overnight because it was in an area that was very rundown in London at time.

00:04:57:18 - 00:05:11:12
Will
It was the King's Cross now is like so gentrified, but it was very rundown. And so a lot of homeless people would come in and basically use it as a cheap or even just like they snuck in a free place to sleep. And yes, old guy just died in the back row. So yeah, what a way to go.

00:05:11:14 - 00:05:28:09
Will
And at a real risk for survival of screening anyway. And I think it's lovely that you found this through A-level language. I mean, I'm just thinking about it as like an example of French language. There's so much like kind of playful and jokey colloquialism as well. I can't imagine how that would have been.

00:05:28:25 - 00:05:29:25
Tara
Yeah, that's so true.

00:05:29:25 - 00:05:45:12
Will
Yeah, I noticed that like Anton's stepdad, I thought it was his dad originally watching the film, but apparently his stepdad. Right. He says he gave him his name at some point. And I don't know if there's like something missing in the French individual in it, but I believe he's a stepdad.

00:05:46:00 - 00:05:47:08
Tara
Yeah, his dad.

00:05:48:00 - 00:06:00:20
Will
And he is like this real clown character who, like, has these recurring kind of bits that he's playing. And I'm assuming some of that stuff just goes right over my head as someone who's not a not a French speaker. So, yeah, that must have been slight.

00:06:00:29 - 00:06:11:23
Tara
Yeah. And I think we I think that was part of what we learnt as well I seem to remember, I mean that was another thing we used to write down these bits of slang I think while watching.

00:06:12:10 - 00:06:29:29
Will
And there's also like this, this corollary to that I guess is quite a lot of the classical French in it. There's love poetry that they study in class. And one of my favourite things about it is that Antoine becomes very briefly like obsessed with Balzac, the, the French author, and like a shrine to him in his little flat, which is, I think, a really funny touch.

00:06:30:28 - 00:06:58:20
Tara
I know it's really, really sweet. He liked this one brilliant little shot of him, him and his best friend. I mean, he's got this lovely best friend, Rene, and there is really a great friendship, a very loyal to each other. They really help each other. And so I don't know if you remember where he's just lying in Rene's on Rennie's sofa with either a cigarette or cigar in his hand, this huge Belzer book.

00:06:58:20 - 00:07:00:18
Tara
And he's like, this, yeah. 14 year old.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:02:05
Will
Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic.

00:07:02:05 - 00:07:23:21
Tara
And then he has a shrine to him and it was really, really sad scene where he he plagiarising spells up on mistake because he's he's just absorbed spells so much that he by mistake completely right and I say with with all of the words from Balzac.

00:07:24:09 - 00:07:38:10
Will
Which is pretty wide back and actually explained the plot very briefly for those watching, there isn't really much of like a direct high stakes plot. It I mean, some high stakes stuff happens, but it's kind of like a random series of events type plots. And that's one of the things that marks out as part of the French New Wave.

00:07:38:10 - 00:07:57:21
Will
This is like one of the initial films of that film movement. We were watching these black and white almost verité movies in a way that I think to a modern viewer can feel a bit like unnoticeable. I noticed there was lots of like weapons and shaky camera kind of following the kids, and that's these style touches that feel really ubiquitous now.

00:07:57:21 - 00:08:28:07
Will
But back then were like these shattering like three big new ideas to bring in to drama, narrative, film in particular. And so we, we kind of follow Antoine through his daily life, and that's essentially the plot of it. He essentially gets into like a couple of scrapes. They get bigger and bigger stakes as they go on, which kind of climaxes in him ultimately entering the justice system, having stolen a very bad idea, stole a typewriter as one of the kids at the borstal tells him afterwards because they have zero members.

00:08:28:07 - 00:08:48:08
Will
Right. So they're really bad. Still. Yeah. So he has Rene who's this guy who seems to live in very different circumstances to him. His parents are also quite absent from his life. He has a rich dad and his mum, which apparently deliberately avoiding him and finding a son. He lives in this big gaff, which is where Antoine, when things get to heart of his parents, goes in like hides out there.

00:08:48:26 - 00:09:09:22
Will
We've read as well, and they also bank off school a lot. So that's a lot of the structure of the film is like that not going to school or getting into trouble at school and then deciding to avoid it following day and notably near the start of the movie, they go to a funfair which kind of kicks off the plot as much as it ever is, one because he sees his mum kissing another man on the street.

00:09:09:22 - 00:09:35:04
Will
So yeah, it's this kind of story of these kids who are very much adrift and very loose from society, really. But I was touched by that central performance from Jean-Pierre Lourd, I think is his name, which is this lovely and kind of sensitive performance. You know, he plays this boisterous kid who's trying to, like, construct his own identity, but he's always zipped up tight and is kind of grim and very closed in and quiet, prone to bursts of anger.

00:09:35:15 - 00:09:42:23
Will
And then opposite him is Rene, who is much more of a kind of fast walker and and then maybe more of a thinker with a group of things that.

00:09:43:16 - 00:10:13:24
Tara
Hmm, yeah. And yeah, I agree. The performance of Jean-Pierre is just fantastic. And do you know the story that he worked? He sort of he worked with him in successive films after this one. So he kind of took I mean, I think he was an actor. Oh, no, he wasn't an actor. And I mean, never acted before. But his mother once and that and so he kind of, you know, it wasn't unknown to the business, but he he'd never acted before.

00:10:14:05 - 00:10:46:02
Tara
And Truffaut found a load of it, took him a long time to find him. And this actually, if you look online somewhere, this is fantastic. There's a fantastic clip of the first audition with the actor and he's like, oh, you're you're a bit old to be playing. Oh, I think maybe they changed. They must have changed the age, because I think Truffaut says you're a bit old to be playing a 12 year old, or is it the other way round?

00:10:46:02 - 00:10:52:05
Tara
You're a bit old to be. No, I think it's a bit old to be playing a 12 year old. I think that's it. But I think they.

00:10:52:09 - 00:11:00:15
Will
I can't remember if they actually say his age in the film the the 14 but I've just found online I think that that might just be the age of character in it.

00:11:00:15 - 00:11:20:19
Tara
Yeah I think so. So maybe they just made him a bit older for the but I think he was supposed to be playing a 12 year old. It's all a bit old, he said. Oh, I'm quite sure. And he's just really kind of a bit cocky. But and also like he says, Oh, you wanted someone a bit mischievous and you know, and he was like, Yeah, I've come off school to be here.

00:11:20:19 - 00:11:42:22
Tara
So he's really like the character. But, but you're right, it's not just a bit, you know, cheeky and a bit. He's also quite sensitive. And you can see that in a lot of the ways that he wants to relate to his mother and and the way he relates to his friends. And yeah, I think you're right that his friends, the kind of planner, the plotter.

00:11:43:13 - 00:12:11:01
Tara
Yeah. He's always on Antoine's always getting like they're all naughty at school, so they're in school together and they're always playing tricks on the teachers, which is loads of great little moments where basically the adults in this film are all either a bit stupid, yeah, a bit foolish or neglectful or cruel too. And the kids are the ones that were with sympathetic with friends.

00:12:12:00 - 00:12:23:28
Tara
Yeah. That bit where he's, you know, at the start of the film where he's basically he gets in trouble. He's the one who gets in trouble all the time, even though it's the other kids.

00:12:23:28 - 00:12:44:28
Will
Yeah. So yeah. It starts off with them passing around a pinup calendar basically like with a dirty picture on the front. And he just happens to be the one who has it in his hands. When the teacher turns around and sees him and he writes graffiti, in fact, on the wall to that effect, which then gets him into having to write lines, which is the reason why he speaks of the funfair.

00:12:44:28 - 00:12:45:18
Will
Because he hasn't done it.

00:12:46:04 - 00:13:07:02
Tara
Yeah. Was always something else that you say escalates doesn't it. There's always some and it's so little, it starts so little. But it's like and it's always the adults fault as well. Like, you know what, it's not one well but like he can't do his homework of those silly lines because his mum tells him to go out and buy flour.

00:13:08:08 - 00:13:15:19
Tara
You know, there's always something that it's not really his fault about, but he gets it gets him in West much trouble.

00:13:15:27 - 00:13:39:00
Will
Yeah, he's he's kind of like a victim of circumstance throughout the movie in lots of ways, not least of which is kind of the seconds that we see. I mean, at the start, even before all the bad stuff happens and it's notable that like his, there's not really much love lost between him and his parents but interesting about the debt for that before because so he sees his mum kissing this guy and his first reaction is more like, well, I might get told off because of that, because I've seen her do that.

00:13:39:16 - 00:13:59:21
Will
But then he points out to her. Renny mentioned this to him, Well, she's not going to tell me off because then she'd have to tell Dad why she to me off, so I would be fine. And then it's this real kind of like, Oh, I'm fine with my mates. And then later on in private with his dad, he brings up the mum and he's kind of goes quiet and he's not really able to talk about her and it has kind of affected the relationship.

00:13:59:21 - 00:14:15:26
Will
But this is quite sensitive. I felt like it was a really rich portrayal of a kids kind of internal landscape as well. He has this fantasy of like going off to the beach or to the river and becoming like a fisherman. So it's like that. We don't think he's ever actually really done this, and he seems to be no evidence of that.

00:14:16:19 - 00:14:26:28
Will
But it's almost implicitly is what he's trying to do. At the end of the film, when in this kind of really famous kind of final shot, he's just on the beach and in the camera, freeze frames and pushes. I don't have.

00:14:27:07 - 00:14:43:13
Tara
Amazing and shot. And like you say, like at that time that was really unusual to have like that freeze frame at the end you would have I mean that's come a lot since but at that time it was quite unusual, wasn't it, that kind of filmmaking?

00:14:43:21 - 00:15:06:04
Will
Well, even the editing style of the film is very different to you if you watch like at the same time, I mean like my French cinema knowledge is not great. Yeah, if I think about it, it's like like or why les enfants, right? Which is like 3 hours long, lots of dissolves. And although it covers kind of similar emotional territory like crime and stuff like that, it feels a lot more stately in terms of how it's made, whereas this feels as chaotic as the events that are occurring in it.

00:15:06:13 - 00:15:17:27
Will
Yeah. And even down to the opening, which is kind of shot out of the car looking up at the Eiffel Tower, but with all these kind of buildings constantly going by and getting in the way of it, you know, it tells you something about the philosophy that's behind the filmmaking.

00:15:18:10 - 00:15:39:01
Tara
Yeah, it's really fresh. I mean, was that you? It was that whole new wave thing. Was that the French new wave that he was such a part of and which felt and still I mean, I think it still looks obviously it's it's in black and white and it feels in some ways like the music is very much of its time, but it still feels fresh to me.

00:15:39:01 - 00:15:40:21
Tara
That's a lot of this film.

00:15:41:18 - 00:15:58:14
Will
Yeah, there's a bit in it. When he goes to this funfair visit early on and he gets into one of those contraptions that kind of spins around, sticks you to the wall where the force of the spin and that's shot in a way that I think you still probably wouldn't do now, even necessarily where it's very dizzying. He's pinned, he's like rolling around inside it.

00:15:58:14 - 00:16:15:12
Will
I mean, I think maybe health and safety wouldn't like that anyway. Full stop. Really. You can't tell what's going on in some respects in sections there. And that feels very fresh even now. Now you mention the music and I know that, you know you're a composer. So be great to talk to you a bit about the music that's in it because it's interesting.

00:16:15:12 - 00:16:19:18
Will
It starts off almost waltzing. You know, it has this kind of what's the energy? It's thought.

00:16:19:29 - 00:16:52:25
Tara
Yeah, I mean, as I said, you I mean, if this was made now, this kind of film, I don't think would have the music that it does. But it's not. Yeah, it's kind of got these very like you say. Well the kind of romantic very much. Yeah, a kind of romantic feel to it. Very French feeling. But then at other times it is quite poignant and the sort of solo guitar, at some point there's this sort of of the this and we like to talk about the end you did earlier.

00:16:53:16 - 00:16:53:20
Tara
Yeah.

00:16:54:00 - 00:17:02:29
Will
From 1959. So they have watched it by now. Yeah. Okay. It's my rule is like if the BFI would print one of those flyers you get before you go in that we're allowed to talk about it.

00:17:02:29 - 00:17:22:01
Tara
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it was on the trailer as well the and so and there's this I mean we'll talk about a scene in a minute, but the the way actually that sometimes music is not used is really, really interesting and then comes in and at times, yeah, it's really kind of poignant and quite sparse.

00:17:22:14 - 00:17:46:24
Tara
And then there's also it uses humour. So there's a lot of even though I mean the story is bleak. Yeah, his life is really bleak really. And his, you know, his home life. And there's a scene later on where he talks to a psychologist and you really hear the sort of how neglected he is as a child by his parents and his mother, especially really.

00:17:46:24 - 00:18:04:28
Tara
And but there's loads and loads of humour like a lot of the humour comes out of that, the sort of japes that these kids get into and the music reflects that as well. So this kind of almost sort of jazzy bits, but the music, there's a great scene where we're running off. You remember where he's.

00:18:04:28 - 00:18:20:21
Will
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's, yeah, there's this section of the film where there are these spots of lights at the film gets kind of progressively darker as it goes on. So at the start it's almost like comedic a lot of the time, and then it gets progressively darker halfway through. He's in school and there's this like PE class.

00:18:20:21 - 00:18:36:10
Will
They're going jogging around Paris and kind of one by one, these kids are a big trail behind the teacher. Just start peeling off and kind of going their own ways. By the end. It's just the teacher on his own who hasn't noticed that these kids are gone. And that's, as you said to this, like quite jaunty, jazzy bit of music.

00:18:36:18 - 00:18:56:12
Will
The is very different, I think, to some of the more orchestral stuff that's in the rest of it. And then yeah, if we think about music as being like the emotional heart of a film, sometimes, and it can lend quite a different feeling to a moment in a film, and I think he does a lot with music. Truthfully, I don't actually know the name of the composer of the film.

00:18:57:05 - 00:19:12:00
Will
They do a lot with music where they are kind of reminding you that there are these spots of light in the monks, this great story, even right down to the end, once he's in like a boys home, you know, he's like they went to the criminal justice system. There's almost a call-back to that piece of music, this kind of jaunty thing.

00:19:12:09 - 00:19:16:22
Will
When the boys are running out to play a big game of football and they're kind of having these chats about how they got inside.

00:19:16:22 - 00:19:45:26
Tara
So yeah. Yeah. And I suppose he's got a new kind of camaraderie, isn't he, in the in the boys home? It's on the home front. And I think John comes to watch a lot more well-known known. Well, I think it's more well, Jewish Telugu but he's not on this film. This was Sheldon John Constant and yeah really kind of a memorable tune which is used in different melody, which is used in different ways throughout the film.

00:19:46:23 - 00:19:52:17
Will
And this was pretty much his first feature, so I don't think he kind of stuck everyone else in. Yeah, as it were.

00:19:53:02 - 00:20:12:19
Tara
Yeah. This was his because as I said, I got completely obsessed with it too. But I had a book where I wrote down every film I went to and I wrote down his that I had to tick off. It's partly we had to watch them for A-level, but then we said we only had to watch a certain amount, but I became completely obsessed.

00:20:12:29 - 00:20:35:12
Tara
But actually the one the one really that's there's a few that I watch that I think are really great, but not all of them. But this one I think is his best film. And yeah, it was his first his first feature, I don't know what age he was, 27 or something, but this was yeah, this I think was the, the one that's really stood a test of time.

00:20:36:14 - 00:20:59:19
Will
Yeah. He died quite young as well. He died in his fifties in the mid eighties. So he which is only about 30 years, not even that slightly under five years after this film. And he was quite prolific during that time. The films that I know of his are Jules and Jim, which is like the other big classic French new Wave movie, Fahrenheit 451, which is him doing kind of sci fi.

00:21:00:00 - 00:21:06:27
Will
And then day four night, which is a film about filmmaking. So it's like the filmmaker's love. Yeah, we don't we American I think it's called in French.

00:21:06:27 - 00:21:33:28
Tara
Here the the the cinema rules I remember it starts like the cinema. It was like this music, which is really lovely music. And then yeah. And he, yeah, he loved cinema. I think for Truffaut it's a bit like with, I think the idea of like Antoine and Balzac sort of temporarily saving Antoine is that it's really autobiographical, the film as well as that.

00:21:33:29 - 00:22:02:03
Tara
So it's quite his child. I think he also went to reform school as well and he was saved by Basile, who was Andre Besson wrote he ran the This Critics magazine called The Cinema. And that was the kind of and Truffaut became a critic, a film critic and was really, really fierce about the films at the time that were being made.

00:22:02:15 - 00:22:17:17
Tara
So much so that he was banned from Cannes. Wow. Yeah. But then he returned. I think it was the next year. Well, soon after, with. With 400 blows. So he kind of redeemed himself by through making films.

00:22:18:15 - 00:22:34:20
Will
We know and love the drama. And yet, I mean, that is the other defining feature of the French new wave, or at least that the chunk of dudes who we usually identify with the French new wave, because you have this of a like subset of filmmakers left by filmmakers like Agnes Varda, who are making slightly different work, but kind of responding to the same social things.

00:22:35:05 - 00:22:51:08
Will
The thing that kind of characterises that crowd is that they were critics really before they were filmmakers and so they really making they were big like fans of Westerns, for instance. So they're making these movies that are a lot more anarchic feeling than what the French establishment's making at the time. And you can really feel that come across here.

00:22:51:14 - 00:23:03:29
Will
I noticed that a cinema makes quite a prominent appearance during the film. Yeah. When after actually setting fire to their flat instead of being punished, he's taken to the cinema. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like this little moment.

00:23:04:11 - 00:23:26:09
Tara
Yeah, that's a strange but, isn't it? Where is the one moment? And I was never quite sure if it was because his mother suddenly starts being nice to him. Is that because she knows that Antoine saw him with the other man, or is it that they really are trying for a little bit and there's a kind of shared this shared moment there, or is it a cinema?

00:23:26:10 - 00:23:55:18
Tara
It brings them all together just through through being cinema, possibly that I was never really sure which which of those scenarios, why she's suddenly nice and they do, but I suppose she's complex as well. She's not just an or is she? I suppose, you know they've all they're all the two parents. They they feature much less than him, but they're not you know, she the mother is sort of dissatisfied with her life and with the struggle of daily life.

00:23:56:01 - 00:24:05:05
Tara
And the stepdad to sort of wants to be closer to the mother. And it's all it's not they're not without their kind of concerns as well.

00:24:05:22 - 00:24:30:26
Will
Yeah. I mean, if you think about the thing I like about like a good deep bit of writing, like a good rich screenplay is that you can have these kind of conversations where it's like there's free possible reasons why this character did this thing and the end. It kind of might be all of them. Yeah. And that that scene is also after the first time that he runs away and stays away from home for a night, after which she makes a really renewed attempts to be nice to him and to kind of try and understand it, although I think he sort of sees for it.

00:24:31:14 - 00:24:52:22
Will
Yeah, there's no flat characters in the movie, really. There's all these kind of rich people and even the cops who kind of get involved in arresting Antoine at the end of the film kind of have these jokes with the the prostitutes that they pick up, you know, they they're like, here's the lady's car. When the when the prostitutes arrive in the early morning, and then he's the coach when they're going to send them off in a bus to jail, the women's jail.

00:24:53:16 - 00:25:17:15
Will
So, yeah, there's this kind of richness in terms of like how the characters are characterised, which is indispensable, I think when you're talking about like a big character drama like that and it's under the step that he's quite interesting to get to because I kind of see him as a that the movie is kind of about a set of people trying to get on and kind of trying to understand life and money and the search for it is constant in the film.

00:25:17:28 - 00:25:44:13
Will
Yeah, and it's notable that the big source of conflict in that early section between stepdad and mum is all about the step dad has to go to the races to network to try and work his way up from being a low level manager to being a senior manager, which is his kind of big thing in life. And he's always talking about how they're going to get a bigger flat and how things are going to be better, which feels like it's basically as fictional as the kind of I'm going to go and get at the competition and that's what happens.

00:25:44:13 - 00:25:45:09
Will
Yeah.

00:25:45:09 - 00:25:51:00
Tara
Yeah. And the mother always kind of want the stepdad to be something else. Really?

00:25:51:17 - 00:26:04:01
Will
Yeah. She's having an affair with her manager, so maybe she just wants to manage her life. We also never get any information as to what happened with our relationship. We don't get a sense. Antoine knows his dad. It's all I didn't. He doesn't come up in the story.

00:26:04:15 - 00:26:35:01
Tara
And you know what you get at the end when he's talking to the psychologist. Is that his gran? He was he knows that his mother wanted to have an abortion. So and the grandmother sort of persuaded him not to persuaded her not to. So he knows something about, you know, why don't you like your mother? And because I can't remember the words, but basically because she didn't she didn't want him.

00:26:35:01 - 00:26:39:18
Tara
But yeah, we never learn we never learn anything about who the dad was at all.

00:26:39:29 - 00:26:57:11
Will
And it's that conversation at the end that is like this really significant bit of character, but it's almost the last thing in the movie, which is quite interesting move. And as far as I understand it, that footage is actually from the original screen test for the kid. And so that woman's voice is dubbed in over Truffaut's, who was interviewing him off camera.

00:26:57:19 - 00:27:13:06
Will
So it's this real, like fresh bit of improv that forms the centre of the character. And it's a really interesting like thing to consider that as part of like the creative process to override, you get a direct sense of it. All of the backstory and improv on the first day before he's even hired the kid, and that's the movie.

00:27:13:06 - 00:27:13:16
Will
Yeah.

00:27:14:09 - 00:27:21:00
Tara
Yeah, I, I heard something different, but it certainly looks like it's certainly because I thought.

00:27:21:03 - 00:27:32:18
Will
It's heavily edited too, that the version of this in the movie, it's got lots of fates and cuts in it and you can hear the voice kind of coming in and out. So I think it is quite compressed. Like I think you took out a lot of stuff that didn't fit the story after that.

00:27:32:27 - 00:28:01:07
Tara
It was all because he improvised it. And apparently the actor had been apparently the actor was going to the the woman was going to be in the film but didn't turn up and couldn't come with something. And so I thought, okay, well, we'll film her later and just get just film one. And then and then he realised how good it is just to keep the camera on the boy.

00:28:01:07 - 00:28:25:12
Tara
And it's so true. Like, why would you want it such a good thing? But yeah, like you said, it was kind of by accident and also it's got sort of like that to to improvise is how he knew that was going to happen. The actor knew that he would be asked to improvise like a month before or something, but it's still, like you say, edited but still really improvise.

00:28:25:12 - 00:28:33:08
Tara
And for a boy to come up with all of that. So it feels like he's just kind of going on, not going off on a story. It's like, how did he come up with this stuff?

00:28:33:28 - 00:28:52:08
Will
Yeah. And it's the importance of street casting ultimately, right? Which is how they got hold of all the boys. They were kind of in fact, as far as I understand, the class of boys, it's all kids who auditioned for the lead role. So they just basically got the roughest bunch of kids they could and sat down to do like auditions, which is really funny.

00:28:52:08 - 00:29:13:25
Will
And, you know, it's interesting working with young actors because that is still considered to be the way that you do it. Like Shane Meadows, for instance, almost always do street casting for his kids, and even like Bugsy Malone was largely street cast. That kid, Fat Sam, who's like the lead mobster and the was it and then he's a British director, is on the island.

00:29:14:22 - 00:29:37:09
Will
PARKER Yeah. Alpaca walks into this New York classroom and says, Who's the toughest kid? And they all point to that kid. And he's like, okay, well, let's have an interview with him. And she's really funny, you know, getting that kid in these silent dance numbers. But and in fact, like the film that this reminded me most of and this is such a kind of like non chronological thing is shoplifters the Hirokazu you create a film that came out in 2016.

00:29:38:08 - 00:29:53:29
Will
I think Corrida has a lot in common with Truffaut because, you know, it's all about the interiority of these kids lives. And in fact, it finishes on a series of interviews where you don't see the interviewer. So, you know, it's this classic trick this really got cribbed from the French new wave sheet.

00:29:54:21 - 00:30:03:28
Tara
Maybe he'd love to read it. Maybe that's why I love creating as well, because, yeah, I never thought they were similar, but they really are. I love them both.

00:30:04:07 - 00:30:12:22
Will
I don't know if you've seen and nobody knows. Which is like create is probably his best film, but also like like the most difficult of courageous films. Right?

00:30:13:03 - 00:30:16:14
Tara
Which, which one is because I've seen lots of them and I never remember which.

00:30:16:14 - 00:30:34:14
Will
Yeah, they were all he's like three different kinds of movie that he does, right? Does a crime movie. He does abandoned kids and he does like coming stabs of grief and often at the same time. Yeah, he did. Nobody knows this about like free kids whose mum abandoned them and they are like left to calm down. This flat is really sad.

00:30:34:14 - 00:30:49:23
Will
Yeah. I mean, you know, everything goes exactly as bad as you think it might from that plot, but without knowing, they st cost the kids. I mean, the youngest one is four. So they really have to get a personality for that kid and someone is going to be able to think about what they're saying on screen and they shot over the course of a year.

00:30:49:23 - 00:31:06:22
Will
So they took like three month breaks each time. So they'd come back with the kids older and older and kind of see them across the gaps that are actually in the film as well. But yeah, it's interesting. Like I've never done that kind of work, but certainly working with kids, you kind of have to come up with a box of tricks in order to motivate them and to get them to understand.

00:31:06:22 - 00:31:26:06
Will
But here in Antoine, you have this like very inventive child actor performance. And as you say, like they ask him to make up a story about the women he's trying to sleep with this like 14 year old boy, which is crazy. There's no gap. He immediately comes out with something that he's like, Oh, yeah, I went and met these prostitutes and all this kind of stuff, which I hope does not reflect that kid's actual experience.

00:31:26:06 - 00:31:28:09
Will
But it by all means, it certainly seems like it does.

00:31:28:16 - 00:31:52:06
Tara
Yeah, I know you. That was really bizarre. Was it because he starts off kind of giggling like a child about it and you think he's just going to say, I don't know, keep laughing or something. But then, yeah, he gets into quite an involved story. I think he's a real he's got real imagination. He must have truth. I must have just seen that this kid has got you know, he's he he's quite quick minded to like one of the auditions.

00:31:52:06 - 00:32:17:01
Tara
I saw him and his and Rene sort of doing an audition together. And you can just see that the enfants Jean-Pierre Leone's just getting more and more kind of into whatever yarn he's telling or whatever joke he's telling. And, you know, he really you can see that he sort of enjoys that. And he's got this imagination. And of course, that changed his life.

00:32:17:01 - 00:32:23:19
Tara
I mean, that was he then became an actor, you know, and and did more films with Truffaut as well.

00:32:24:00 - 00:32:31:07
Will
Yeah. He's like in the rest of Truffaut's films, or at least a large chunk of them. He's not doesn't Jim, which is the only other one that I'm kind of familiar with.

00:32:31:24 - 00:32:48:13
Tara
He's he's the same character. So, I mean, I actually I think this one is so far superior to the follow ups, but he's the same. It's still I'm turned on and different. Different. It's still him as a character, as an old school. Good idea.

00:32:48:13 - 00:32:50:05
Will
Yeah. Yeah, that's so interesting.

00:32:51:12 - 00:32:52:12
Tara
I can't remember what they're.

00:32:52:29 - 00:33:02:01
Will
He's in stolen kisses, bad and bored and love on the run wasn't he's into English girls and in definite is what wow. So he's in like seven of the 12 movies that I made.

00:33:03:00 - 00:33:15:10
Tara
Where he really did take him on. I think he saw something of himself in him, I think. And certainly, of course with this film it's semi-autobiographical. So you have to sort of see something of himself. And then the so I suppose.

00:33:15:27 - 00:33:28:11
Will
And I'm just now realising I saw a vet recently, which he is also in playing this tyrannical French film director who used to be much more famous than he is now. So, you know. So he was riffing off there. Yeah.

00:33:28:11 - 00:33:38:17
Tara
And also, Truffaut has a little cameo in this film in the in the fairground scene, right. That you were talking about, that I got to go.

00:33:39:02 - 00:33:42:09
Will
Yeah. I mean, Truffaut also did do some acting. He was in Close Encounters.

00:33:42:24 - 00:33:47:08
Tara
Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Because he loved the cinema, didn't he? Like he loved Hitchcock.

00:33:47:08 - 00:33:51:27
Will
So I think he would have been perfectly happy to steal back. Obviously, he's like the kind of inheritor of Hitchcock in some way.

00:33:52:06 - 00:33:52:24
Tara
Yeah.

00:33:53:28 - 00:34:12:00
Will
So think about we talked about lots of scenes in the film already, and it'd be great to find out if there's a particular scene or sequence that you would recommend to a new viewer who's not familiar with the film. So if it's someone who hasn't seen the movie before and hopefully something not too spoilery, but if it's spoilery, hey, it was made in 1959.

00:34:12:17 - 00:34:13:02
Will
It's okay.

00:34:13:24 - 00:34:42:21
Tara
Yeah, okay. There's three. So I'm having real difficulty choosing in 3 seconds. So my. Okay, I'll tell them all and then you can decide. So the first one would be when they, you know, they played through like more than one and there's one thing they're just kind of getting more and more delinquent. And there's one scene where him and Rene Antoine, I'm trying to run a walking alone with this girl like a young girl, and they take her to a puppet show.

00:34:42:21 - 00:35:12:18
Tara
And I have no idea who this girl is. I think it's probably just they probably know her in the neighbourhood or something and I think it's a ruse to get to spend some time. You know, they can take this girl to the puppet show. Maybe you had to have a child get you in. And then it's just a brilliant shot of and it must be it must have been a real puppet show and non-actor kids must be and just this fantastic shot really of looking at the children, watching the spectacle of a puppet show.

00:35:12:29 - 00:35:39:03
Tara
And and it's just all they're different different reactions. And some of them are sort of in shock. And then you see them in shock and then laughing. And at one point I think you see the actual puppets, but mostly it's on their reaction. And there's one point where a little boy puts his head on the shoulder of his friend, and then there's another boy who's kind of laughing, but only and only when other kids laugh.

00:35:39:03 - 00:35:55:25
Tara
So he's kind of looking at the reaction to other kids and if they laugh, he'll off. So it kind of shows all these or how kids that age, I think they must be sort of four or five, how they how they interact with each other. And then you kind of you see all this and then you see a shot.

00:35:55:25 - 00:36:18:09
Tara
So when you see this this little scene of René Antoine just sitting at the back, they might as well be smoking. And they kind of like to like talking about how they're going to get hold of money and who they're going to steal off. And it just sort of shows how it shows some humour. It shows real compassion for a sort of child.

00:36:18:09 - 00:36:38:28
Tara
I view that, Chief, I really have you know, he really loved children. And also it also shows how far apart the two boys are from this kind of innocent life and sort of idyllic life and how they've got to actually talk about where to get money because they're running away. So that's one.

00:36:39:18 - 00:36:55:09
Will
Yeah, great. Take that. Really fascinating. And I hadn't really thought of that. But I think you're right that it totally characterises like something about the film that's really special, which is just a level of observation of like behaviour and of simple activities that children do. Mhm.

00:36:56:00 - 00:36:56:12
Tara
Yeah.

00:36:56:16 - 00:36:57:05
Will
What kind to.

00:36:57:28 - 00:37:36:00
Tara
Number two is the child psychologist scene. So, so it's when. Yeah. So Antoine is brought to this reform school and well he's because he's stolen the time. Right. Well the awful thing is you can cut this if it's too spoilery, but the awful thing is that his court back the title rights. That's what's so awful. So he gets away with the sex and it's so typical of someone's life, but he gets it's one of he's taking back the typewriter because they haven't managed to sell it.

00:37:36:08 - 00:37:57:16
Tara
Then they have to take it back. So anyway, so he's he's caught and finding his parents kind of what's not the don't completely wash their hands of him but they say these thoughts amount to sort them out. We can't control this child and it's just. Yes, this amazing scene that we've talked about, really, where you're just looking at Antoine.

00:37:57:16 - 00:38:32:15
Tara
And it's the scene where they they would have had to not ask the questions, but because the actor didn't turn up as the psychologist or she couldn't come to the the rooms that day, Truffaut asked the questions and said, okay, really good thing as well, actually, for Antoine, I imagine so. And he was told that he was going to be doing this improvising like a month before, but he didn't know what he was going to say.

00:38:32:15 - 00:38:56:00
Tara
And of course, he knew his character. And so he's just asked the series of questions. And all you're doing is looking at him and kind of fidgety and he's like, It just shows really what his character's like, but he's a little bit bit cocky. He's sort of he's got not much respect for authority, but at the same time he's quite sensitive.

00:38:56:00 - 00:39:37:19
Tara
He's still a child. Like when they say, what's a you have ever slept with a woman and say, Well, have you slept with a woman? And he's. And he's like, he laughs and you realise that he's still this little kids, but he's in this, you know, he's, he's amongst adults in the prison system. So he, you kind of get a lot of his character in those, in those few questions and also it's the first time, like you said, that you see him, like you get this backstory and it's just incredible that you leave that till really near the end of the film because the whole sort of the plot, as you say, it's not it's

00:39:37:23 - 00:39:59:21
Tara
kind of a loose plot in that it feels like it just tumbles naturally and there's no you don't feel that things are put in just to serve the plot. It just happens that it happens naturally. And it leads to this these various points and this is one of the points it leads to. And so you kind of get a sense, just more of an explanation, I suppose, of his character.

00:39:59:27 - 00:40:06:15
Tara
But you kind of know it anyway, because we've become to really know this boy over the course of the film. But yeah, it's just.

00:40:07:29 - 00:40:21:27
Will
Interesting because his parents seem like kind of weirdly like annoyed with him in ways that he maybe has earned. We're kind of like, why are they so? And I guess in a sense you're then in his perspective because I think for him the consequence is not so clear of what he's doing.

00:40:21:27 - 00:40:22:12
Tara
Yeah.

00:40:22:13 - 00:40:29:19
Will
To find out for the end like that, he's stolen hundreds of pounds from his grandparents that it's like, okay, right now I understand the stakes a bit more.

00:40:29:23 - 00:40:47:23
Tara
Yeah. Like his. It's true, actually. Yeah. Because we're all the time, you know, he didn't do that. It wasn't that bad. It was. And actually, yeah, it did steal a lot of money from his grandmother. Grandma was the one who helped him. But there's also really good line in it where he says the mother says, Oh, no, the psychologist says, why don't you know?

00:40:48:06 - 00:41:19:10
Tara
Your parents say you lie a lot. Your parents say you lie and he said, Yeah, I do sometimes. And he said he said, Well, if I told the truth, they wouldn't believe me. Which is just which is really true some of the time as well. And like, you know, in what was sort of unjust, the sort of injustice of some times where I remember kids at school, you know, they haven't really done anything, but they got up because there was one boy like I remember that was there were two children in my class in secondary school.

00:41:19:14 - 00:41:37:15
Tara
One of them was always gets in, the other one in trouble the whole time. And it was like it got to the point where the teacher would say, Who's done this? And this boy, it wasn't me, it wasn't me. So he was like, he was already saying it wasn't him. He was used to being, you know, accused of stuff.

00:41:37:29 - 00:41:50:19
Tara
And so in a way and one might as well steal because he'll be accused of stealing it. No, he might as well like he's been accused of a lot. You know, he'll he won't be believed if he tells the truth. So he might as well come up with a good story.

00:41:50:19 - 00:42:05:15
Will
Yeah, and it's sweet to that. The reason why he ends up getting in such trouble is because he doesn't. DOBBIN He's standing outside waiting for him. When you read that, it's not typewriter. Yeah, yeah. There's a pointed kind of moment when they ask him if he was with anyone. He says no. And they said, Oh, so you take sole responsibility for it.

00:42:05:15 - 00:42:10:07
Will
And he goes, Yeah, I do take some responsibility for it, but it's yeah, very tough.

00:42:10:21 - 00:42:11:07
Tara
Yeah.

00:42:12:03 - 00:42:19:19
Will
Yeah. And then you had a, a third option, was it I mean those are both great and I think I'm with your best for that. But yeah, give me a third.

00:42:19:19 - 00:42:42:26
Tara
Option or the third one is probably the most famous one. And it led to like one of the most amazing sequences in all of cinema. And it's also I mean, for me personally, it's one that I've sort of remembered the most probably. And I, I even wrote a piece of meat because there's no God. So basically he's in the reformed store.

00:42:42:26 - 00:43:05:27
Tara
So this is going to be a spoiler. But you can either cut or you can decide. So he's in reform school and basically they're all playing football and he makes an escape is already seen that that's quite dangerous thing to do because some other kid has come back earlier. Earlier in that section they.

00:43:05:27 - 00:43:11:25
Will
Say they say like the only thing worse than being in the school is escaping it and then being caught. Right. Oh, my.

00:43:11:25 - 00:43:40:00
Tara
God. So he already knows it's a dangerous thing to do and quite risky and quite like that he might get caught and that. Yeah. And that it would be a bad thing. So but he does make this, this, this escape under a fence if I'm right. And the, and immediately the teacher sees and starts chasing him and we've seen him with loads of people.

00:43:40:00 - 00:44:07:04
Tara
I've seen that. We've seen him with the boys that he's playing football with and then escapes. You see him sort of start to be chased, but quite quickly he's on his own and he's just running through having seen loads and loads of Paris in the city of Paris. We now in really different kind of sequence to the film, just see him running across, running through countryside, and it's just this amazing, long, long tracking shot.

00:44:07:04 - 00:44:28:21
Tara
It's goes on for quite a while and it's just silent except for his feet. And you start to see bits of the countryside. And of course, he's always wanted to he's talked about earlier in the film, like we said, talks about wanting to escape or be free and, you know, run, have a boat by the sea or whatever.

00:44:29:03 - 00:44:51:01
Tara
So he's running, running, running through the countryside. And all you hear is just his feet on the ground and. It goes on and on and on. And it's just amazing, this shot of him, you see the whole of him just running. He doesn't stop at all. You see him come under a kind of bridge and then you climb.

00:44:51:02 - 00:45:16:19
Tara
And then that gets to a point where you know that he's not being chased anymore. I'm not sure how we know, but you just it becomes sort of clear. And then finally this music comes in and it's again, this very sort of romantic orchestral music, and we see a shot of the sea and that's like, okay, so he's wanted to see the sea and it's still a bit of a way from the sea.

00:45:16:19 - 00:45:40:22
Tara
And yeah, that sequence, that whole sequence I loved so much that I wrote a piece of music, a piece of orchestral music. In fact, two years later, in a in a concert about that scene. And then when he comes to the beach, then so then the music comes in and but it becomes more poignant that music so ends up with just this little melody that we've heard before but really pared down.

00:45:41:05 - 00:46:03:02
Tara
And he runs to the sea and then he turns round and we just see his face and that's where it stops. So we have no idea what's going to happen to him. And apparently in that scene, the director said, well, yeah, the direction was just to run to the sea, turn around and look at the camera, that's all.

00:46:03:18 - 00:46:20:04
Tara
And I remember I read this thing where it said so what? What did it mean? What did you think, Jean-Pierre? What did you think about the scene when you were shooting that, when you were acting? And he said, oh, it's a mystery. And they said, So, you know, we're thinking like, does it show that he's become a man?

00:46:20:04 - 00:46:33:09
Tara
It's sort of his stage from the boy to the man. He said. It's a mystery. Truffaut just told me to run to the sea and look back at the camera. And that's so it's all it is.

00:46:34:16 - 00:46:40:26
Will
It's like the ending of Lost in Translation, right? It doesn't really matter what he's whispered so much as there was a whisper.

00:46:41:06 - 00:46:41:18
Tara
Yeah.

00:46:42:02 - 00:46:58:15
Will
Sometimes I think that a certain kind of feel. Watch, I can get a little bit too cool, you know, in those kind of mysteries. Yeah. It's more about the emotion on his face, that moment of like, Well, what do I do next? And whether or not that's like the, the actor experience, the, whether, like the character's experiences in that clip, it is a matter to the end of the movie.

00:46:58:23 - 00:47:15:07
Tara
Yeah. And it's quite ending. I mean to have that point just to end on this show and it's yeah. And he's suddenly alert and he really is completely alone because at that point his parents totally washed his hands. I mean, they've even said the mother said, Oh, you're not my son anymore or something, or I've wash my hands of you.

00:47:15:07 - 00:47:17:12
Tara
That's it. So really, I think.

00:47:17:12 - 00:47:24:16
Will
The parents even split up, haven't they? Or they'll not love each other anymore by that point, she says, like. Like this was the last straw for you or something like that.

00:47:24:27 - 00:47:46:26
Tara
And really go back to Yeah, there's nothing to go back to. So all is gone is possibly having to go back to them. But you kind of well, you absolutely no idea. But you there is the impression that perhaps he's escaped that forever, that school. Yeah. That they haven't managed to catch him, but we've really no idea and we won't know until we see one of the sequels is probably not explained anyway.

00:47:46:26 - 00:47:49:26
Tara
I can't remember, but I imagine. Yeah, yeah.

00:47:50:21 - 00:48:05:01
Will
It's almost a hopeful ending because he's kind of gotten to this kind of imagined freedom. But I think for an adult watching it, you know, there's this mismatch between what he feels as a child being like, Yeah, I'm out and what we think about like the years and years and years ahead of him.

00:48:05:12 - 00:48:28:14
Tara
Yeah, yeah, that's true. So for him, it really is. Yeah. He's really free at that point. You're right. But we know that he's only either 12 or 14 and that he's like, what you do at that age and you're on your own in the countryside when you should be at reform school. And also just going back to the music, the music ends on an undecided note.

00:48:28:14 - 00:48:38:01
Tara
So it's. De de de de de de de de de de or something of that. So it just ends on a yeah. So again, you know, just showing how uncertain it all is.

00:48:38:18 - 00:48:43:11
Will
Yeah, it's like it's running out of steam. I think that bit of soundtrack, almost like the films winding down kind of thing.

00:48:43:22 - 00:48:45:07
Tara
Yeah, yeah.

00:48:45:07 - 00:48:55:23
Will
The scene I was going to recommend actually was the funfair scene because I think it gives you a good sense of kind of the anarchic kind of approach to the film. But you've chosen freehold scenes and they're all great, so I'm just going to pick one of those, I think.

00:48:55:23 - 00:49:02:00
Tara
Okay, but you're right, it's a really good scene, too, and it's fun. It shows cinema as well, just the like.

00:49:02:07 - 00:49:17:13
Will
You can really see the impact of it there. I think more than the rest of it because I mean, it's a testament to how successful the French New Wave was that almost everything that they did that's revolutionary feels completely traditional. Now, you know, it kind of became a natural part of film language. Yeah, in a way it isn't.

00:49:17:29 - 00:49:24:12
Will
It's kind of hard. It's like watching Seinfeld after you've seen Friends. It's like, why is this good? Why do people like this?

00:49:24:13 - 00:49:25:17
Tara
Yeah, yeah.

00:49:26:13 - 00:49:40:17
Will
So that's the 400 blows and effects, Tara, for recommending the film, because you finally made me sit down and watch it. It was a real, real treat for me. Yeah. And is there anything that you want to plug while you're on the podcast? Any kind of like new work you're doing, anything like that.

00:49:41:01 - 00:50:00:00
Tara
I'm working on things that'll be a while. I'm working on a documentary which has had lots of delays, but it would be really interesting for each film. So I'm starting that and I'm also writing some songs based on ancient Chinese poetry. Wow. So one day that will see the light of day, too.

00:50:01:00 - 00:50:02:18
Will
That's great. Tara, thank you so much.

00:50:03:00 - 00:50:04:06
Tara
Thank you very much.

00:50:05:00 - 00:53:13:01
Will
Thanks for listening. To see more film reviews, video essays and commentaries like this one, subscribe to Indy Tricks Film Reviews on YouTube.

00:53:17:15 - 00:53:23:02
Will
Tara brings her personal journey into cinema to this discussion, making for a fascinating conversation.

00:53:26:28 - 00:53:53:11
Will
Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. To hear more conversations. To hear more conversations on film, check out the Indy Tricks Podcast Search indie tricks. Wherever you listen to podcasts to get started. Search indie tricks wherever you listen to podcasts to get started. Search indie tricks. That's AI and digital IPX. I know it was 2008. Wherever you listen to podcasts to get started.

00:53:54:23 - 00:54:33:16
Will
Thanks for listening. To see more film reviews, video essays and commentaries like this one. Subscribe to Indie Treks Film Reviews on YouTube. Hi, I'm Wil Webb and this is why you should watch. In this conversation we're discussing Wolfgang Becker's 2003 film, Goodbye Lenin. Hi, I will. Webb and welcome to the India Treks podcast. In this German comedy drama, Tearaway Alex is stifled by his ardent socialist mum, Christiane.

00:54:33:16 - 00:54:59:00
Will
But when she's injured and then awakes from a coma after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alex must maintain a socialist alternate to save his mum's ailing health. Joining me for this conversation is George Magner, a director and producer whose new film For Better is currently on the film festival circuit. I also run a production company with George, but we barely talk about it.

00:54:59:01 - 00:55:26:19
Will
Honest. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for watching to hear more conversations on film. Check out the Indie Treks podcast. Just search indie treks wherever you listen to podcasts to get started. And yes, that is spelled I n d, i.e. t r i x. No, I don't know why ever. No, I don't know why ever. Thanks for watching. To hear more conversations on film.

00:55:27:01 - 00:55:53:25
Will
Thanks for listening. To see more film reviews, video essays and commentaries like this. Subscribe to indie film reviews on Spotify, on YouTube. Hi, I'm Wil Webb and this is why you should watch. In this episode we're discussing Angela Robinson's 2003 film, Deb's.

00:55:56:09 - 00:56:33:19
Will
In this episode, we're discussing Angela Robinson's 2003 film Deb's Deb's, Deb's. Hi, I'm Wil Webb, and welcome to the Indie Tricks Podcast. In this spy pastiche 18. In this spy pastiche, a team of in this kitschy spy pastiche a team of teens secret agents is assigned a case involving supervillain Lucy Diamond. But when top of her class agent, Amy meets Lucy Sparks, fly in more ways than one, and they fall in love, much to the consternation of Amy's team mates.

00:56:35:13 - 00:57:09:04
Will
Joining me for this conversation is Kaitlyn Meadows, a. Joining me for this conversation is Kaitlyn Meadows, a video essayist who has produced videos on a range of topics, including animation and Luca and Wolfwalkers, 1950s lesbian horror movies and the secret melodies and everything everywhere all at once. She brings a deep appreciation of Deb's camp credentials to this fun conversation.

00:57:10:17 - 00:57:33:18
Will
She brings a deep appreciation of Deb's camp credentials to this fun conversation. Thanks for watching. To hear more conversations on film. Check out the Indie Tricks Podcast. Just search indie tricks wherever you listen to podcasts to get started. And surprisingly, that's not spelled with a Y or a C, an AK, it's I and d i t r i x.

00:57:34:06 - 00:57:47:16
Will
Yes, we spell it with an x for some reason. Thanks for listening. To see more film reviews, video essays and commentaries like this one. Subscribe to Indietrix Film Reviews on YouTube.

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Episode Description

If you have questions about the film, film in general, or anything indietrix-related, get in touch on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Willwebbful
https://twitter.com/indietrixfilm

indietrix film reviews is a movie review channel hosted by Will Webb with a wide view of cinema, taking in arthouse, indie and blockbuster movies with lots of analysis and discussion.

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/indietrix
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/indietrix
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Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Willwebbful/

Transcript:

00:00:02:01 - 00:00:12:27
Will
Hi. I'm Will Webb, and this is why you should watch. In this episode, we're discussing Francois Truffaut's 1959 film, The 400 Blows.

00:00:14:23 - 00:00:16:23
Tara