Small Change (1976)

This was the first foreign language film I'd ever seen. I was only six or seven years old when my Dad rented the film. He was in his bedroom watching the film when he called me, my Mom, and my sister into the room. He showed us the scene where Le' Petite Gregory falls out the window. It was one of the most terrifying and suspensful things I'd ever seen, up there with the best of Hitchcock. Years later, when I was in film school, I tried to remember the name of the film. When I became familiar with Truffaut's work, I suspected that he might have directed this film. I went to my local video store where we they have a Truffaut section. I saw the box for "Small Change" and rented it on the hunch that it might be the film I'd seen as a boy. Sure enough, it was. I love this movie! After "The 400 Blows", this is Truffaut's masterpice!

Fmovies: I disagree with most critics when they say this movie has no plot. It in fact does. It is one thing to make a movie with a cast made up mostly of children, but to capture true moments of youth and innocence is another. This is one of François Truffaut better films. The opening is quick and curious, the next thing we see is a wild mob of children running nowhere. The school bell as rung and the children are free to do anything and nothing. Can you think back to moments of your youth when simply being free to do anything made you more powerful than King Kong? We are introduced to a well rounded group of characters. From the wealthy to the poor, the ugly and the cute, and the safe and the scared. In the end, the cast of children are looking back at the audience as if they were watching us as we (the audience) watch back.

I watched this movie with my girlfriend one night, and she commented on the fact that the children never change clothes. At first I thought she was referring to the poor, abused child. But I noticed that the costumes for the other children remained the same. I studied film in college, and I thought for a long while why Truffaut would want to keep the costumes the same. My theory is that Truffaut wanted to capture these kids at one certain point in there lives where they don't change. Children grow up so fast, they become teenagers, then adults. By the time adulthood sets in, they've become somewhat jaded by the world around them. By keeping the kids in the same costumes, I think Truffaut is trying to capture the moment in there lives where they remained the same. Although first love and heartbreak is inevitable, at least, for one brief period, we see these kids in a state of grace. I think this point is also strengthened by the fact that Truffaut used the children's real names for their roles.

This is the type of film parents wished were made more often, except when these films are made, nobody goes to see them (Another good example of a family film that bombed is "Searching For Bobby Fisher"). This is the perfect family film. It's charming, touching and filled with laughter. No wonder Steven Spielberg suggested it to Truffaut.

If this film doesn't touch your heart, you probably don't have one.

Small Change fmovies. Small Change is certainly one of Francois Truffaut's better efforts. When considering several of the excellent films he has made, that is a strong statement.

Small Change is simply about the lives of children. Grammar School children in France to be specific. That is the greatest extent any description of this film has to be. It is simply about children. What makes the film so wonderful is its simplicity in approaching its subject. It honestly views its subjects over the course of a year, and with few exceptions, does little else.

Perhaps that is what makes the film so original, because it views the world through the eyes of the children. The hopes and concerns of the children are brought to the screen with the priority system that a child would have, further emphasizing this point.

All things considered, this is an excellent film.

Small Change unfolds like a poem - it's a collection of moments, thoughts and experiences, all clustered together, adding up to a very significant outcome. What it amounts to is the most thoughtful reflections of childhood I've ever seen, given from the perspective of many different age groups.

The film has many scenes that are used as a vehicle to illustrate the differences between children and adults - usually comparing the former favorably to the latter. This is clear in a scene where a girl and her father watch two seemingly identical goldfish swimming around in a fishbowl. "That's Plic" says the girl. "And that's Ploc." But her father can't see the difference. A child's superior eye for detail has rarely been so clearly exposed on film.

Most of the vignettes are funny. Some demonstrate childhood resilience, such as a scene where a toddler falls nine stories but is uninjured. Another shows children's uncanny ability to make the best of a bad situation, when a girl left alone at home thinks of an interesting way to draw attention to herself.

But among these funny episodes a more serious situation develops. The movie slowly but sharply draws a contrast between the children who come from loving families, and one child, a youth of about 13, who does not. Moments of this abused child's life are also closely observed - the pain of rejection, the joy of finding coins on the ground at an amusement park, and the innovative schemes to get by and survive. Julien's childhood is shown as a painful period, but an occasionally magical one nonetheless.

What is so pleasurable about viewing Small Change is its simplicity - it's rarely a film where you constantly need to grope your mind for implications or deeper meaning. Most of the scenes are remarkably uncluttered, just like childhood itself.

Unbelievably, this film was rated R upon its original release, then rightfully changed to a PG upon public outcry. A PG-13 would probably be the most appropriate rating, but this classification wouldn't come into effect for another 7 years. It is completely appropriate for children, but does seem geared primarily towards adults. Because the language is quite simple, it could also be viewed as an ideal movie in second or third year French. Not just for fans of Truffaut, I couldn't recommend this remarkable movie more.

Instead of characterizing children as angelic creatures without personality or true emotions, Truffaut portrays them as they are: young people with their own dreams and everyday problems. This movie is funny and touching, never slow and always enjoyable.