#1 - THE 400 BLOWS (1959) by Francois Truffaut
Jean Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel
The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut is forever recognized as one of the founding film of the revolutionary cinematic movement known as the French New Wave. Alongside Godard's Breathless (which was incidentally co-written by Godard), it pretty much updated cinematic essence, style and context as it was known in its traditionalist and somewhat updated form. Yet, compared to Breathless, The 400 Blows is certainly more aesthetically pleasing and soft-hearted, despite its immediate charge. All these are qualities conveyed in the central perfoemance by Jean-Pierre Léaud, without whom it's hard to imagine the film to have been quickly considered as one of the best ever made.
Léaud is strangely detached, and yet simultaneously expressive. His Antoine Doinel is one of the most three dimensional child characters ever committed to the big screen. Yet, despite the natural sympathetic reaction he inspires, the nature of the film doesn't allow for it to be pleasant in any direct and conventional way.
The 400 Blows was a film of firsts. It was the first feature by Truffaut, and the beginning of the beautiful collaboration between him and Léaud. Indeed, one of the best, as well as one of the most personal. It is a widely known fact that The 400 Blows is Truffaut's semi-autobiographical endeavour. But Doinel is ultimately a creation of both actor and filmmaker, and one that apparently started early in the process of the film's production. The screen test was in fact worked into the film, and would become one of its most famous scenes - the conversation with the psychologist. The screen test was improvised.
The two would revisit Doinel four times over the following twenty years and Stolen Kisses (1968) in particular would become another five star classic.