The lives of a motherless young man, who's just starting to find interest in women, and his physically abused, poverty stricken friend, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges most their age experience.
Direction
Truffaut's warm, unflinching eye on children's inner lives.
Acting
Non-professional kids who feel devastatingly real.
Writing
Dialogue that captures how children actually think.
Director
François Truffaut
Jean-François Stévenin
Jean-François Richet, the Schoolteacher
Virginie Thévenet
Lydie Richet
Tania Torrens
Nadine Riffle, hairdresser, Laurent's mother
Nicole Félix
Grégory's mother
Marcel Berbert
School Principal
François Truffaut
Martine's father
Laura Truffaut
Madeleine Doinel, Oscar's mother
Eva Truffaut
Patricia
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Truffaut discovered lead actor Georges Desmouceaux playing soccer in a Paris park; the entire child cast was non-professional.
The film emerged from Truffaut's own childhood trauma and his failed 1950s documentary on children, 'Les Mistons,' showing his lifelong obsession with capturing authentic youth.
FR
