Un petit Parisien

Benji (Enzo Bossetti), the youngest of three brothers, is eight years old when the Germans occupy France in 1941. His father (Thibault de Montalembert) has returned from captivity, but his mother is very sick and dies a few months after his return. Benji adores his father, who is a respected professor, and at the same time wonders how it is possible that he can forget his mother so soon. From then on we follow, trough the eyes of Benji, the sometimes rapidly changing situations in an occupied country and in a rather chaotic family with a father who makes – to put it mildly – some rather unhappy choices. I don't want to give away to much but Benji and his brothers have to put up with all kinds of changes, which they seem to take in their stride. Un petit Parisien was made for TV but is nevertheless a very well crafted film with excellent performances. Without anything particularly spectacular happening there is never a dull moment. The photography is beautiful and, last but not least, the story is moving and very well told.

The movie follows a 10-year-old boy Benji, his two brothers and a father in a wartime France.

The father has trouble keeping his pants on with women and as the boys' mother dies at the start of the film, he starts to neglect the boys and their needs gradually as he spends most of the time womanizing and trying to work as a columnist. So the film is about relationships and human behaviour, and how kids understand these things different to grown-ups.

The actors do their job very well: Benji's role is challenging as he has lot to say but the actor is very natural and interact very believably with his hot-tempered yet intellectual father Claude and his mistresses Dora and the somewhat naive Maité.

Although this is TV film, it oozes quality in direction, acting and art direction and could very well have been shown in cinemas.