Francois Truffaut came on to the filmmaking scene during the French New Wave, and many critics categorize The 400 Blows as marking the start of the movement, though this is debated. The "New Wave" describes a group of filmmakers who didn’t shoot scenes in studios, relied heavily on available light, filmed mainly with handheld cameras, used black and white film stock, and broke with many of the filmic conventions of the mainstream. Jean Renoir had a major influence on Truffaut and set him on a path towards becoming one of the mavericks of the New Wave.
A defining photographic component of Truffaut's work on The 400 Blows is the way that he holds a shot for a long time. The longest in this film is 1 minute and 21 seconds: the tracking shot as Antoine is running away from the observation center. This style was also a favorite of Andre Bazin, a man that came to become Truffaut’s surrogate father, who believed that too many cuts in a film took away the beauty and art in the film.
Truffaut's ability to find the poetic in the mundane is on display in The 400 Blows as well. For example, during the scene in which Antoine takes out the garbage, we see the lights go out, and then Antoine turn them back on. During the war the French had to have their lights be set to automatically turn off in order to save power; Truffaut used this to his benefit by allowing it to emphasize a filthy everyday chore of taking out the trash. Truffaut was influenced by the realities of life, its small details and mundanities. He had a particular talent for showcasing these everyday occurrences and giving them weight and meaning on-screen.
Alfred Hitchcock was another important influence, and we see a Hitchcockian move during the scene when Antoine gets on tilt-a-whirl carnival ride. The sequence has both a gleeful and a terrifying tone, as we watch Antoine spin. Finally, Balzac and Proust were two French authors that had a great influence on Truffaut, and were his favorites. In fact, Balzac is a prominent reference point in The 400 Blows, as Antoine begins to read his work and becomes intoxicated by the master's prose.
