FILM SCREENINGS

L’Enfance nue

1969. France. Directed by Maurice Pialat. Screenplay by Arlette Langmann, Pialat. With Michel Tarrazon, Marie-Louise Thierry, Rene Thierry. Literally translated as “naked childhood,” the title of Pialat’s purportedly autobiographical first feature announces what’s not to follow: sentimentality, pop psychology, and nostalgia. Stripped of the accoutrements that often gussy up renderings of the ugly-duckling stage of life, Pialat’s portrait of a hyperactive ten-year-old and the foster families in which he’s placed registers as acutely and devastatingly honest. Courtesy Roissy Films. 82 min.