L'Enfance nue

for all the comparisons to truffaut, bresson, the dardennes etc this is basically just a wiseman film (that scene on the train!), a careful arrangement of moments in the lives of abandoned people and those trying/failing to help them. pialat teases out the shared humanity without simplifying or sugarcoating the underlying systemic issues, exposing us to their voices and struggles until watching/listening slowly evolves into feeling/empathising, if not necessarily understanding or solving.

FUCK THIS KID

Beautifully bittersweet. After Francois injures his wrist, a series of shots refer strongly to 400 Blows. But the rest pleasingly subverts its dramatic question : Where Truffaut's film is more concerned with Antoine's fate in society, Pialat's is more interested in depicting whether or not he's capable of forming genuine connections. Francois's psychology feels more detailed and authentic. Like fleeting documentary poetry. And we see his redemption through the POV of Grandma/pa. So good.

Full of quietly realistic and powerful emotional moments. Its influence can be seen everywhere from Wes Anderson to the Dardennes, and it makes me eager to see more of Pialat's films.

This was an interesting film. Invites you to look at childhood through a sharper lens, although the film is about more than one child, and the range of clear-cut characters - each performance begs you to pay careful attention - is a beauty to behold.

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.

A complicated film, where at times you want to hug this kid and other times you want to slap him silly.

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.

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.

Some have compared Pialat's first feature film to Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" for focusing on child delinquency, but the comparison is an insult to Pialat. Pialat isn't interested in kitschy trivialities about a mistreated child lashing out through thievery. He digs much deeper, completely shunning sentimentality and conventional dramatic climaxes in favor of dynamic but understated delivery, and drawing a much more complicated psychological picture of his subjects.