Les Mistons [The Mischief-Makers] *** (1957, Gérard Blain, Bernadette Lafont, Michel François) – Classic Movie Review 3019

François Truffaut’s charming and revealing 1957 nostalgic short is his first professional film. Financed by his film distributor wife Madeleine Morgenstern and filmed on location in Nimes with five local boys as the Mistons (Mischief-Makers), it deals with the sexual awakening of a gang of 12-year-olds one long summer.

The pesky boys are obsessed by Bernadette (Bernadette Lafont), the sister of one of them, who falls for PT teacher Gérard (Gérard Blain). The kids spy on two lovers, following them everywhere, watching their lovemaking in the fields. When Gérard is away, they send a suggestive postcard to Bernadette. But a newspaper story tells them that Gerard has been killed while climbing.

Based on the short story Les Virginales by Maurice Pons, it was originally 26 minutes and later cut to a taut 17 by Truffaut. Michel François provides the voice over narration.

Truffaut chose the sensual, dark-haired, 18-year-old Lafont and her new husband Blain to play the lovers. Blain and Lafont also appeared in arguably the first French New Wave feature, Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (1958). Lafont, who died on July 25 2013, aged 74, could claim to be the first female star of the Nouvelle Vague. Truffaut starred her again in Une Belle Fille Comme Moi (1972).

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Classic Movie Review 3019