Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes

Daniel is an unemployed young man in a provincial town. He has no overcoat, and that is the most important thing in his life; he believes he cannot approach anyone or talk to girls without one. He borrows a coat from a friend. Then he finds work: standing outside a shop dressed as Father Christmas over the holiday, having his photograph taken with children. Inside the costume nobody knows him, and he uses that. Jean Eustache writes and directs. Jean-Pierre Léaud plays Daniel. It was shot in Narbonne, the town where Eustache was born, and runs about forty minutes. The subject is being seen. Daniel talks to people all day inside the costume, and when he takes it off nobody looks at him; the film shows the difference without comment. Jean-Pierre Léaud was then the emblematic face of the French new wave, and the part here is not outside his known type but plainer. Life in the town is given in detail: cafés, streets, dances and young people with nothing to do. Eustache worked in short forms for a long time and this is among his known early works; the manner here too rests on ordinary talk. Who it is for: viewers who like the French new wave and short realist films. Who it is not for: nothing happens, it is short, and the film reaches no conclusion.