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Small Change

Small Change

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nearly 30 Years Later, It's Still Superb
Review: Never mind that the DVD subtitles call the film Pocket Money, which is the literal translation from the French, this Small Change jingles as lyrically as it did on first release in 1976. These children will now be somewhere in their 30s and early 40s, somewhere in France, anonymous probably in their daily lives, but they will always be here, captured being kids by Truffaut in the most unobtrusive way possible. Their daily resilience is most famously depicted in the famous scene of Gregory fait boum, but their energy, their mischievousness, their innocence and budding, bumbling curiosity about that great mystery, girls is all here too. As a hymn to childhood, including its darker recesses, Small Change will never be bettered and rarely be equaled, and anyone serious about movies and moviemaking should always have it close at hand.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: gregory went boom!!
Review: oh my gosh i love this movie!! i'm watching it in french class right now and it is the funniest thing ever!! when gregory fell out the window i almost died laughing and when slyvie stood on her porch saying j'ai faim over and over again!! that was hilarious!! i want to buy this soo much and everyone should watch it!! it's the best!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Surviving Child¿
Review: Small Change is a film that describes interactions between different children and their social macrocosm and this leads to different results in their social microcosms, since the children are under the complete control of their guardians. The adults' parenting sometimes leaves the children vulnerable and which is presented in a number of troubling scenes. Despite these perilous situations, the children survive and have to learn how to manage by themselves in order to live a happy life. Nevertheless, the parents do offer affection and love for the children, which aids in their struggle through life. In turn, the children also affect adult rule over them through different actions. Truffaut displays great understanding for children through this film by creating a next to perfect dissection of child development and child psychology that psychologists such as Harlow, Vygotsky and Piaget would call "a functioning experiement in action". Overall, there are several pleasurable moments in the film that are well balanced with the serious occasions, which leaves the audience with a brilliant cinematic experience that is full of wonderful life lessons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh, What a wonderful film!
Review: Small Change lets you enter the world of some schoolchildren in a French town. We get to see them go through the joys and pains of childhood as they interact with each other and with the adults in their neighborhood. The viewer gets drawn into the movie and feels like a resident of the town watching the neighbor children experiencing pain and pleasure, joy and sadness, love and rejection. This movie has almost everything that makes a movie great including some very clever scenes. One thing it doesn't have is the kind of storyline that Americans are accustomed to having in films. I suspect that may be the reason one person gave it a bad review.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Kitschy kitschy goo
Review: Superficial, awe-struck "study" of childhood

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Delightful film about provincial French children
Review: This episodic story of a year in the life of a group of children and their families in provincial France is one of Truffaut's most delightful films. It's full of gentle humor and poignancy and the kind of understated observation that one associates with Truffaut. I recently saw it for (I believe) the fourth time, and it holds up beautifully. Highly recommended.

~Dan Oliver

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: J'AI FAIM!!!
Review: This is a WONDERFUL, striking movie...I watched in French class several years ago and have always looked back on it fondly. So many of the issues are "shocking" to Americans, and serious issues are treated plainly with humor and wit, instead of the dramatic "dressing up" that they usually recieve on "popular" films. I LOVE THIS MOVIE...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: J'AI FAIM!!!
Review: This is a WONDERFUL, striking movie...I watched in French class several years ago and have always looked back on it fondly. So many of the issues are "shocking" to Americans, and serious issues are treated plainly with humor and wit, instead of the dramatic "dressing up" that they usually recieve on "popular" films. I LOVE THIS MOVIE...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truffaut at his best!
Review: While Francois Truffaut made many wonderful films, he was always at his best when filming children. In "Small Change" he deals with many of the same themes as he did in his classic "The 400 Blows." But this time he is capturing the joy of childhood, not the pain. One could say, in fact, that this is "The 400 Blows" with sugar frosting on top. It is a pure delight from beginning to end.

Francois, why did you have to leave us so soon?


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