Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is finding childhood difficult. His mother (Claire Maurier) neglects and berates him until he catches her having an affair, while his stepfather (Albert Rémy) accuses him of theft but can be boisterously affectionate. He rebels at school, earning disciplinary action and runs away, living in a friend's (Patrick Auffey) house, and committing petty theft to pay for cigars and magazines. After being caught trying to return a stolen typewriter (because it wouldn't sell), his parents sign him over to a juvenile detention facility.
This movie is a great argument for birth control. I wish I had seen it before I watched Capernaum, which was clearly influenced by this film. According to Wikipedia, this was a semi-autobiographical work for writer and director François Truffaut, which just goes to show that men will create an entirely new movement in cinema rather than go to therapy.
It is a classic of the French New Wave and has been hailed as one of the greatest films of the century. I don't know that I'd go that far, but it is an excellent portrayal of childhood without the sentimentality of nostalgia. Léaud is very young to carry a film this well but successfully manages to play a child pretending to be an adult, if that makes sense. Like, he seems like a real kid wanting to be older and sophisticated instead of a Child Actor told to act like a Kid. Watch the movie. You'll see what I mean. It's currently streaming on HBO Max, the Criterion Channel, and Kanopy.
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