L’enfance nue
L’enfance nue • 1h 23m
Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1968 • France
Starring Michel Terrazon, Marie-Louise Thierry, René Thierry
The singular French director Maurice Pialat puts his distinctive stamp on the lost-youth film with this devastating portrait of a damaged foster child. We watch as ten-year-old François (Michel Terrazon) is shuttled from one home to another, his behavior growing increasingly erratic, his bonds with his surrogate parents perennially fraught. In this, his feature debut, Pialat treats that potentially sentimental scenario with astonishing sobriety and stark realism. With its full-throttle mixture of emotionality and clear-eyed skepticism, L’ENFANCE NUE (NAKED CHILDHOOD) was advance notice of one of the most masterful careers in French cinema, and remains one of Pialat’s finest works.
Up Next in L’enfance nue
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Autour de "L’enfance nue"
This fifty-minute documentary, shot by Daniel Creusot and Francis Warin, examines both the making of L’ENFANCE NUE and the plight of children in the foster care system. It first aired on the French television program “Choses vues” on January 31, 1969.
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Kent Jones on L’ENFANCE NUE
Kent Jones is the author of "Physical Evidence: Selected Film Criticism" and the executive director of the World Cinema Foundation. Here, he discusses Maurice Pialat's unique visual and narrative approach in L’ENFANCE NUE.
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Maurice Pialat on L’ENFANCE NUE
On February 12, 1973, right after L'ENFANCE NUE first aired on French television, Maurice Pialat was interviewed by Michel Martens for an episode of the program “Champ contre-champ,” directed by Maurice Frydland. In these excerpts, Pialat discusses L'ENFANCE NUE's subject matter, its commercial f...
