Every
month, Director Spotlight takes a look at an auteur, shines some light
on a few items in the director’s body of work, points out what makes them an
artist, and shows why some of their films work and some don’t. September’s
director is consummate cinephile Francois Truffaut.
NOTE: Look, I’m tired of typing it out for pretty much every
entry, so here it is in the opening: there’s going to be spoilers in this
thing, and in almost every entry of Director
Spotlight. There’s a lot more to a film than the basic plotting, which is
only a small part of the enjoyment as far as I’m concerned. Still, if it’s
going to bother you, I’d highly suggest not reading ahead until you’ve seen the
movie in question.
Grade: 69 (B)
The 400 Blows is
the greatest movie ever made about unhappy childhood largely because Francois
Truffaut, a product of an unhappy childhood, based so much of the film on his
own life. With few exceptions (Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes
Anderson), few directors understand the difficulty of childhood as well as
Truffaut, and so few can get into the heads of children the same way Truffaut
could. Pocket Money (aka Small Change) is another look at
childhood from Truffaut, but one that mixes and understanding of how difficult
it can be with an equal understanding of how joyful it often is.
The film follows the residents of Theirs, France,
particularly the lives of the children, their parents, and their
schoolteachers. One boy, Patrick (Geory Desmouceaux) struggles with young love
as he displays shyness among his peers and an adolescent crush on his friend’s
mother. The schoolteacher (Jean-Francois Stevenin) deals with his the anxieties
of becoming a parent for the first time. The film returns periodically to
troubled Julien (Philippe Goldmann), who lives in an abusive home.
Pocket Money is
episodic by nature, and while most of those episodes are pleasant, the film
doesn’t have the immediate resonance of The
400 Blows or The Wild Child. But
Truffaut’s Renoir-like warmth towards his characters and his natural
playfulness makes Pocket Money an
enjoyable if minor work (though some apparently adore it, and Roger Ebert named
it the best film of 1976 over Taxi
Driver…which is nuts). The film has a great sense of how children interact
with each other and with parents and a natural, breezy flow to it. Some of the
more notable episodes: a little girl, annoyed that her parents leave her
behind, calls on her father’s megaphone for food from the neighbors; the
troubled young boy sneaks into a movie, much as Truffaut had when he was a boy;
a boy tries to tell a dirty joke but has trouble getting past his own laughter;
and, in a masterful scene of Hitchcockian tension and French New Wave
playfulness, a toddler chasing a cat on the ledge of a window, only to come out
unharmed.
Pocket Money is
particularly strong when dealing with portraits of young love. When Patrick and
his ladies’ man friend pick up a couple of girls and go to the movies, Patrick
is too tentative to make a move. When Patrick falls for someone for the first
time, it is for a friend’s mother, and the scene where he brings the woman
roses is equal parts sweet-natured, adorable, and awkward. Best of all is
Patrick’s first kiss with Sylvie (Sylvie Grezel), in which Truffaut masterfully
choreographs a scene of missed opportunities, embarrassment, and sweet
awkwardness.
Ultimately, though, it is the most serious scene in the film
that gives it the most resonance. Julien’s abuse at the hands of his mother is
discovered, and suddenly his difficult behavior- shoplifting, inattentiveness
in school, trouble connecting to other kids- all makes sense. It’s a rare case
in a Truffaut film where society steps in and does an act of pure goodness-
Julien is rescued and put into a foster home, and the schoolteacher reveals his
own painful childhood to his students. The man is the polar opposite of the
teachers of The 400 Blows- caring,
warm, and affectionate. “Injustice to children is inexcusable…each of us need
to be loved.” It is perhaps a bit too didactic and a repeat of past Truffaut
films, but the lightness of touch the director handles it with more than makes
up for it.
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