One Homeless Boy

Euphemisms are the anesthesia of language. In France, the abbreviation R.T. stands for recueillis temporaires (temporarily taken in), a numbing term for unadoptable children. Me refuses the anesthetic and presents a painful examination of one homeless boy, Franc,ois (Michel Terrazon). Shifted from institution to foster home, the ten-year-old burns his bridges before he comes to them. He commits petty crimes, plays truant, lies to his many foster parents--all because he is afraid that if they love him he will lose them, as he lost his mother.

Terrazon, an untrained actor, moves with the swagger of the truly insecure. Surrounding him are other amateurs, including a grandmother (Marie Marc) who manages to define affection in terms that Franc,ois finally comprehends.

In all deprived children, adult eyes watch from juvenile faces. Franc,ois never completely changes; in the end, a prank turns into tragedy, and Franc,ois takes a giant step backward to an institution. But if hope is dimmed it is not entirely extinguished; Franc,ois is no longer a child, but neither is he unadoptable.

Among the financiers of Me were Franc,ois Truffaut and Claude Berri, whose films, The 400 Blows and The Two of Us, were also examinations of childhood. In this case, their role was strictly financial; Maurice Pialat deserves the credit for his direction of citizens who say more about life than they say about themselves.

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