Its many unforgettable moments include those painful 'blows'*, a long tracking shot of the escaping boy, a crocodile of children which evaporates, children's faces watching a Punch & Judy show, a night alone in Paris, a psychiatric interview (in which we learn all about the boy's unhappy upbringing - apparently, Léaud's screen test) and that incredible, haunting final freeze frame, surely one of the most famous endings in film history.
Dedicated to Truffaut's mentor and saviour André Bazin ("my real father"), who had died the night of the first day's filming, aged 40, and who thus missed his protégée's feature debut (and his best director award at Cannes).
Haunting music by Jean Constantin, natural photography by the essential Henri Decae (in Dyaliscope).
I'm awfully glad the director continued the boy's story as to have left him there would have been heart-breaking. It manages that great Gallic trick of seeming to be light and unsentimental whilst delivering a crushing emotional weight.
I first watched it on 9 September 1978 at the age of 15 - just the right age - and loved it immediately.
* Though the title's also a pun - faire les quatre cents coups means to create mischief.
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