Les mistons (1957)

Director:

François Truffaut

Writer:

Maurice Pons (short story)

Release Date:

6 November 1958 (France)

Genre:

Short | Comedy

Plot:

During the hot summer, 5 kids, "Les Mistons", spy on two lovers. They follow Gerard and Bernadette everywhere...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Kids And Family

Cast

Gérard Blain	...	Gérard
Bernadette Lafont	...	Bernadette Jouve
Michel François	...	Récitant / Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

The Brats (UK)
The Kids (USA)
The Mischief Makers

Runtime:

18 min | Japan:25 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Nîmes, Gard, France

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

This short is available on the 2003 Umbrella release of "The 400 Blows".

Quotes:

Récitant: A virginal heartbeat has its own juvenile logic.

Movie Connections:

References Le coup du berger (1956)

a fabulous short about the double-edged sword of youth and innocence

Les Mistons displays Francois Truffaut's special gifts as a filmmaker in a nice shot of 18 minutes in Les Mistons, as he works with children, and a love story with the young. While the story is simple- five kids who've barely had their voices crack follow a young woman, Bernadette, who becomes their envy when she's dating Gerard- the execution is quite intelligent and involving. Before the 400 Blows and Breathless knocked around the streets of Paris for locations, Les Mistons shows their characters all over the place, in the woods, in the streets, on bridges, and even inside a rustic looking stadium of shorts (I loved these scenes, with their high angles and timing). And the children have a very, very realistic feeling to them, as this is indeed what kids their age do, if they have no technology or attention span. There's even a small kind of Cocteau quality to some of their scenes, like when they are play-firing guns at each other, or hatching their 'vicious' games against the love-birds.

It also helps a good deal that the actress playing Bernadette is incredibly pretty, practically without trying, though it's not to say that Truffaut doesn't get some quixotic shots of her playing tennis or riding her bike. But it is without some doubt that the story will end with some tragedy, or at least some revelation of this double-sided way about youth, both for the invigorated like the kids or for the seemingly life-long blissful partners of Bernadette and Gerard. It contains the light quality of all of Truffaut's films, and while there isn't enough time to really get to know these kids or Bernadette (though for the latter it's better to have the mysterious, almost no-dialog quality about her), it works wonderfully- one of my favorite short films.