Small Change (L'Argent de poche)

Released 1976
Stars Marcel Berbert. Corinne Boucart, Pascale Bruchon, Claudio Deluca, Franck Deluca, Georges Desmouceaux (I), Francis Devlaeminck
Directed by François Truffaut

Small Change (or Pocket Change) is a loosely connected set of vignettes surrounding young classmates in a small French town. It's sharply observant in detail but lacks an overall story. To a large degree it lost me when the little boy fell out of the ninth floor window and giggled that "he fell down."  From that point I enjoyed the stories on an individual level, but the overall package lost its charm. I enjoyed the storyline about the abused boy, Julien Leclou, the most. There were serveral good points made about society with this storyline. The scene where villagers surrounded his mother and grandmother as they were herded into the police wagon reminded me of Frankenstein. After all, aren't today's vilest monsters people who hurt children? The only problem with this storyline was the long-winded, semi-effective speech given by the teacher. It was unnecessary and muted the emotional impact of the previous scene.

Summary by Bill Alward, June 7, 2001