LES MISTONS Movie Review

The Mischief-Makers

François Truffaut's first feature was his 1959 The 400 Blows; his first film was Les Mistons (known in the U.S as The Mischief-Makers). It's a half-hour portrait of a group of small boys who are both fascinated and repelled by a pair of lovers (Bernadette Lafont and Gérard Blain). The kids spy on them, laugh at them, follow them everywhere on their bicycles. Though the situation and concerns are different than those that little Antoine Doinel would encounter in the abusive, darker world of The 400 Blows, the characterizations here are distinguished by Truffaut's consistent sensitivity and his remarkable emotional honesty in portraying the motives and needs of children. Les Mistons looks and feels a bit like an audition film—as if Truffaut were testing his wings and trying to discover if he had the ability to make a movie at all. He needn't have worried; he aced this test.

NEXT STOP … The 400 Blows, The Wild Child, Small Change

1957 18m/C FR D: Francois Truffaut. VHS HMV