
Jean Eustache’s second and final narrative feature, MY LITTLE LOVES, follows Daniel (Martin Loeb) as he navigates the bewildering world of early adolescence. Living with his grandmother (Jacqueline Dufranne) in a sleepy village outside Bordeaux, Daniel enjoys a carefree existence with his similarly innocent, though often mischievous, peers. But when his mother (Ingrid Caven) arrives and relocates him to Narbonne, Daniel is prematurely thrust into adulthood: pulled out of school, he is forced to work for a surly mechanic and, left to his own devices, falls in with an older crowd that is far more experienced in dating and sex. Featuring a wonderfully nuanced performance by Loeb, MY LITTLE LOVES is a coming-of-age gem surpassed only by Eustache’s own earlier masterpiece, THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE.