FUCK THIS KID

Comparisons to 400 Blows are unavoidable. Both are about troublesome boys, both around the same age, and both end with an ambiguous future. Pialat's film is about a foster child, though, and he dares to make the character more unsympathetic. When taken in by an elderly couple, Francois' warmer side surfaces, but he's still overcome by his nastier impulses. Pialat also does not share Truffaut's New Wave sensibility, instead he goes for a much more realistic approach, almost documentarian.

Maurice Pialat's debut film is an unsentimental, observational story that approaches documentary in its use of (I think) non-actors and real-life settings, as well as 'fly on the wall' camera and editing style. Eschewing the lyricism of Truffaut, it emphasizes the gulf time creates between knowing a child's inner life when you're able to view it as an adult.

Sort of seems almost like a remake of The 400 Blows, but an impressive debut from Pialat nonetheless. A solid piece of social realism all-around, and Pialat's deep sense of humanism rivals Truffaut's if not surpasses it.