L’Enfance Nue (Criterion Collection)

The singular French director Maurice Pialat (Loulou, + nos amours) puts his distinct stamp on the lost-youth film with this devastating portrait of a damaged foster child. We see Frantois (Michel Terrazon), on the cusp of his teens, 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 this potentially sentimental scenario with astonishing sobriety and stark realism. With it's 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. Special Edition DVD features new, restored high-definition digital transfer, L'amour existe, director Maurice Pialat's 1960 short film about life on the outskirts of Paris, Choses vues, autour de L'enfance nue, a fifty-minute documentary shot just after the film's release, excerpts from a 1973 French television interview with Pialat, new visual essay by critic Kent Jones on the film and Pialat's cinematic style, video interview with Pialat collaborators Arlette Langmann and Patrick Grandperret, new and improved English subtitle translation plus a booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate.