Review by jromanbaker

Of course the subject matter of this film was not a success as it deals with a subject most people want to ignore, and that is the sexuality between adults and young teenagers, in this case of a boy. The film seduces by its Bresson attempt at neutrality, but in my opinion it is not neutral as no work of cinematic art can be neutral. As in Bresson's ' Mouchette ' and ' Au Hasard Balthazar' we see two innocent beings, one a donkey, the other a young girl abused by others and finding either total oblivion or something else beyond death. Bresson is in no way neutral, and those who destroy others he sees as beyond redemption, or maybe worse, they have the hell of feeling nothing at all. Comparing Gerard Blain's depiction of homosexuality, for that is what it is, has the surface of neutrality as there is no real open condemnation. Blain made a previous film called ' Les Amis ' and it follows a similar path of older man and much younger man. It ends of course badly for the older man, and then comes this pitiful tale of an even younger youth's search for affection and love. I believe Jean-Claude Brialy was right in saying Blain was abused as a child/youth and that he hated homosexuals. This neutrality in both films is a cover for hatred, and in no way does it compare to Bresson and his quiet disgust at a whole world that abuses and destroys innocence. His neutrality is full of pain whereas in Blain it is a neutrality full of unstated revenge against another way of loving, and that is homosexuality. He prefers only to show the abuse and the abusers, a minority within a minority, alien to his own orientation. A nasty film and ' neutrally ' meant to be.