How is the film itself? Out of 5 stars, what would you rate it?

definitely *****
Truffaut's first film, The 400 Blows is considered to be the film that started probably my favorite cinema movement, The French New Wave.
Out of all the 5 long out-of-print Criterions that go for high prices on eBay, this is the one I wanted the most, and totally do not regret it. If you don't want the Criterion, Fox Lorber has an inferior release of the film that you can even get for the average $10 price from Columbia House.

*****
Truffaut's semi-autobiographical look at his youth is an excellent film.

...yup! definitely *****/*****

. . .

What is inferior about the Fox Lorber release???

-It is made from the same transfer as the Criterion
DVD, only the Fox Lorber one is RSDL and uses a higher bit rate.

-It includes several more trailers than the Criterion one did

-They both have commentary tracks. They are done by different people, so this is the only place where I could see the Criterion being better

So, if all you want is the best available version of the film, go with the Fox Lorber release as the quality is every bit as good (if not better) as the Criterion.

Jeff

The first commentary on the Criterion disc is IMO better than the Fox Lorber one - much more informative. I don't speak French well enough to comment on the second track on the Criterion disc.

Otherwise, the movie looks/sounds the same to me on both discs.