My Little Loves

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.