NEW YORK, June 15, 2016— On Friday, July 1, Films on the Green will present the iconic New Wave masterpiece The 400 Blows (Les 400 Coups), directed by François Truffaut. Hailed by Robert Ebert as “one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent,” The 400 Blows won Truffaut the award for Best Director at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and was recently recognized in 2016 with an Honorary Golden Palm bestowed on Jean-Pierre Léaud for his role as protagonist Antoine Doinel.
The film that transformed Truffaut from a leading critic into a New Wave auteur, The 400 Blows follows Antoine Doinel, a cinematic analogue of Truffaut himself, through painful trials characterized by aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. Doinel is played by a 14-year-old boy who, out of the 60 boys who auditioned for the role, came across as “an anti-social loner on the brink of rebellion.” As such, the 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud conveys all the weight of adolescence on his shoulders—he is “implacably deadpanned yet expressive” and “apparently relaxed yet tense” (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times).
This tribute to Truffaut’s “internal battle between nostalgia and anarchy” (Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine) was filmed at the Eiffel Tower and in the Montmartre, Trocadéro, and Pigalle areas of Paris, serving to situate the tumultuous adolescent in an historic city full of towering landmarks and impressive architecture. Jeanne Moreau, Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, Philippe De Broca, Jean-Luc Godard, and Jean-Paul Belmondo also make on-screen or voiceover cameos during the film.
The screening will take place on Friday, July 1st at 8:30pm at Transmitter Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The film is in French with English subtitles and is free and open to all.
DJs from WHCS, Hunter College’s radio station, will play French tunes prior to the screening.
Friday, July 1 - 8:30pm - Transmitter Park
THE 400 BLOWS (LES 400 COUPS)
Directed by François Truffaut with Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Decomble, Albert Rémy
1959 | Drama | UR | 1h39 | France
François Truffaut’s first feature is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut’s cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. The film marked Truffaut’s passage from leading critic to trailblazing auteur of the French New Wave.
2016 Films on the Green Festival ScheduleThe festival offers this year a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity.A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Paris and its surrounding suburbs.All films are shown with English subtitles. Screenings begin at 8:30pm, except the Columbia screening, which begins at 7:30pm.
June 7 – Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue): Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, preceded with The Red Balloon by Albert LamorisseJune 10 – Washington Square Park: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Yves RobertJune 17 – Washington Square Park: Air of Paris by Marcel CarnéJune 24 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Subway by Luc BessonJuly 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): The 400 Blows by François TruffautJuly 8 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares & Franck EkinciJuly 15 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): Un Flic by Jean-Pierre MelvilleJuly 22 – Tompkins Square Park: Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès VardaJuly 29 – Tompkins Square Park: Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric RohmerSept. 8 – Columbia University (at 116th St): Girlhood by Céline Sciamma
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation would like to thank Films on the Green’s 2016 official sponsors: Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde.
Tandem Paris-New York 2016 is a large-scale transatlantic cultural exchange between Paris and New York. From June through October 2016, cultural institutions in New York and Paris will present an extraordinary selection of events in a variety of cultural disciplines including music, dance, cinema, literature, theatre, the visual arts, language, gastronomy, and digital innovation from the partner city. Tandem Paris – New York 2016 is organized by the City of Paris and the French Institute, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Embassy of the United States of America in France, with the support of the City of New York.
About
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French American exchange around literature and the arts.
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. FACE Foundation (French-American Cultural Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the state of New York.
NYC Parks is the steward of approximately 29,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 650,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.