Naked Childhood

Ten-year-old Francois is passed between foster homes. It is not that nobody wants him; the problem is that he cannot manage to stay. He throws the cat down the stairwell, he steals, he lies, and each time he is sent on to the next house. Eventually he is placed with an elderly couple, and there he seems for the first time to hold on to something. The film refuses to turn this into a story of transformation. It looks for no cause, draws no lesson and explains nothing Francois does; instead of saying what the boy feels it shows what he does. There is no emotional score and no closure. Maurice Pialat's first feature, written with Arlette Langmann. Francois Truffaut was one of the producers. Most of the cast are not professionals, and Pialat brought his documentary background with him: scenes are cut short, speech overlaps, and the camera watches without commentary. The film is treated as the beginning of one of the harshest strands in French cinema, and Pialat kept that same refusal in everything he made afterwards. Who it is for: anyone drawn to social realism and curious about Pialat. Who it is not for: anyone who wants to bond with a character. The film is cold, the boy's behaviour is disturbing, and the story never once lets the audience settle.