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L'argent de poche (1976)
Review
In 1975, Francois
Truffaut took his camera to the small town of Thiers in central France
to shoot the daily lives of a handful of youngsters in their last year
of elementary school. They all go through tribes and tribulations of
various degrees, from forbidden crushes, through poverty and domestic abuse,
to innocent teenage love. It is a sweet, if somewhat contrived film
filled with charming, unprofessional actors and seemingly instantaneous
situations. The camerawork and mode of storytelling is fascinatingly
refreshing, but unfortunately, Truffaut's plan isn't quite as pure and
spontaneous as aimed for. The performers at times seem too instructed and
bound, but there are a handful of moments in which Truffaut captures
magical moments of timeless (childhood situations) and contemporary (mid
to late 20th century central European village life) proportions. The
film has a delicate grace, despite its transparencies.
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