International Film Comparison

Matheus Louly Caixe

03/31/2020

Spring 2020

Four Hundred Blows and Lady Bird

 Abstract

The relation between these two movies are very similar, when it comes to plot. In

Lady Bird, Christine McPherson, represented by Saoirse Ronan, is a teenager in which have

very conflicts with her mother during the movie. In Four Hundred Blows, the same issue is

created when Antoine Doinel, a young boy that has very problems with his family. In terms

of plot, the two movies have very similarity, but in terms of cinematic techniques, both have

their differences and similarities.

The movie Four Hundred Blows directed by Francois Truffaut, has very similarity with the

movie Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig. The first similarity that is shown on both movies

is acting. Acting in these two movies have a big importance and the reason why is because

since both movies represented a young and a teenager, this includes a lot of emotions, such as

happiness, sadness, angriness, etc. and there is no better technique to represent emotions such

as the actor. “Experimental evidence indicates that people are extremely skilled at evaluating

and identifying the emotions that can be conveyed through gesture and facial expression.”

(Prince,2012, p.144). This explains how the audience is capable of identify the emotion

through the actor, in which is represented by using gestures and facial expressions. “Because

the facial and gestural components of performance invite comparisons with real-life

emotions, situations, and circumstances, they elicit both interpretive and emotional responses

from viewers.” (Prince,2012, p.145). In the movie Lady Bird, Christine McPherson is facing

her first date with a young man which goes to the same school. After kissing him, she acts

very happy and this happiness is giving to the audience, representing all happiness when

people have their first kiss. Also, to compare that to Four Hundred Blows, a scene that

represent this engagement to the audience and giving the emotion desired is when the young

boy Antoine Doinel is hardly hit in the face by his stepfather and then have a facial

expression really sad. Also, there are scenes that the young boy is caught by the police, which

can create to the audience the affliction to what will happen to him. However, to make even

better actor’s performance, the filmmaker combines different elements, which includes

cameras, lights, sets. “Acting links cinema with theater as a medium of performance, but the

film actor is not always the center of the show. A filmmaker typically combines an actor’s

performance with other elements of design furnished by the camera, sets, lights, and props,

and in the final combination of elements, the actor may or may not be central.”
 Another similarity it is possible to notice is the editing technique, in which have a

great importance in any film. In these two movies, the technique used is called “straight cut”,

which is a technique that is very noticeable, and is often used in many films. “The most

commonly used transition is the straight cut, which is visible on screen as a complete and

instantaneous change of one image or shot to another. The cut is typically used to join shots

where there is no change of narrative time or place involved.” (Prince,2012, p.152). This

technique is used in both films, and the interesting part on that is because they are 58 years

apart and yet it uses the same technique for editing.

Cinematography is the first step in every movie. Both movies had their

previsualization in how a movie will start. “During preproduction, the cinematographer and

production designer consult with the director to discuss and define the film’s design. This

work is called pre-visualization because it is an initial attempt to formulate the basic features

of how the film will look.” (Prince, 2012, p.58). In that case, both directors used something

related to their own experience. In lady Bird, the director affirms that she “I didn’t want [the

film] to be intravenous, I wanted to sense the proscenium, to sense the frame, that it was this

magic lightbox.”. This means she wanted to use something unique, one experience that is

only she wanted to know. The same process was in Four Hundred Blows, because the

director was showing his experiences, when he was growing up and how it was to grow up in

France on those days. For that reason, these two similarities fit under cinematography,

because is the preparation for the movie, is where “The director, cinematographer, and

production designer work together in close collaboration to create an effective visual design.”

(Prince,2012, p.58). The preparation is the most important part of the creation of the film,

because is when those that are working behind the scenes create the “magic “which is to

organize every detail and then apply it into the movie later on.
 Four Hundred Blows is an excellent film, which won many awards and despite the

year is was filmed, the techniques used on this movie is actually what most of the movies are

using today. However, there is a difference between this movie and Lady Bird as mentioned,

which is the lights and colors. The movie was filmed in 1959, in which cameras were not able

to create colors, and neither the absolute use of full lighting. The majority use of lightning

they were actually able to create was the use of natural lights. On the contrary, Lady Bird is a

movie with the use of ENG (Electronic Newsgathering) as the director says: “The technique

we ended up utilizing was similar to using an older ENG style video cameras I grew using

and learned on, where you could bump the gain to like 12, 16, DB” which was created in

1970s to help editors to gather video and audio, in which creates a movie with better lighting,

colors and sets.

To conclude, there are many similarities between these two movies, in which both

have similar plots, the behavior of teenager and growing kids. However, they are unique in

their specific ways, same use techniques but different works, showing same emotions but

different perspectives. Techniques that will always be on cinematic, and every year is getting

every better and technologic, but the greatest contrast here is that these two movies are 58

years apart, and it proves that no matter how long cinematic techniques are, it will always be

the same process, meaning that these techniques will remain and be very important to any art

created. Lady Bird and Four Hundred Blows, movies that are so many years apart from

another, but that gives the audience the same emotion, engagement and realism in situation

many people are going through.

 References

O'Falt, C. (2017, December 14). How Greta Gerwig's Brilliant Use of Colors Turned 'Lady
Bird' Into an Emotional Nostalgia Trip. Retrieved from
https://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/lady-bird-greta-gerwig-color-sam-levy-1201907175/

Prince, Stephen R. Movies and Meaning. Allyn & Bacon Inc, 2012.