Small Change

ESmall ChangeE shot in the French Provinces is a story about children. Truffaut has captured the essence of each age group a the verbally precocious three-year-old who pushes the family cat out the window only to follow it nine stories to the ground the teenage boy yet to experience his first kiss but hopelessly infatuated with his best friend's mother the uncooperative eight-year-old daughter of the local policeman who when left alone as punishment uses her father's bullhorn to complain to the neighbors she is starving the brothers who having insufficient pocket money to buy a stolen compass cut a younger classmate's hair and borrow his barber money.THESmall ChangeE contains precise and moving descriptions of the various stages of a secure childhood of the fun and freedom one experiences as a child but throughout the film Truffaut makes a stunning comparison with another child who lives in the same town who attends the same school. He compares the life of Julian who is hated and abused by his mother whose mere existence is despised because he is a child. In ESmall ChangeE Truffaut makes an eloquent and traumatic appeal for the rights of children.