L'Argent De Poche (aka Small Change) (1976)

Set in Thiers, France in the summer of 1976 as we follow the lives of a group of school children. They seem about 12 years old. There's no real plot as the movie episodically bounces around. Co-written and directed by Francois Truffaut (JULES AND JIM). Truffaut has an affinity for adolescents as he showed in movies like THE 400 BLOWS and THE WILD CHILD. I'll be upfront about my feelings about kids. I don't dislike them but I don't have any interest in them either. While I can occasionally enjoy a film with a child at its center (like THE YEARLING or E.T.), I tend to avoid movies that feature children (that's plural) at its core. Thus I avoided Truffaut's SMALL CHANGE for years. I still can't bring myself to watch Malle's AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS and I've never seen popular films like THE GOONIES or STAND BY ME for this reason. Which is why I figure I'm not the audience for a film like this. I didn't hate it but I couldn't drum up much enthusiasm for it either. I found most of the kids lazy and bratty. When a 2 year old and a cat fall out of a high window, I worried about the cat, not the brat. I couldn't even summon up much care for the abused child (Phillippe Goldmann) at the film's center. My least favorite Truffaut (and that's saying a lot after THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN). With Geory Desmouceaux, good enough that I'll give his adolescent a pass.