Zazie dans le Métro

Malle's third feature plunges us straight back into the world of New Wave jiggery-pokery, with jump-cuts, lavish in-jokes, and a whirlwind narrative (taken from Raymond Queneau's delightful novel) centred around a precocious brat (Demongeot) lewd enough to give a few tips to the Jodie Foster of Taxi Driver. It has survived the years much better than other indulgent frolics, mainly because Malle really does seem motivated by gleeful malice and anarchy - he's not just toying with a fashionable mood. This spirit captured even underground guru Jonas Mekas, who commented on the original US release, 'The fact that the film is a failure means nothing. Didn't God create a failure too?'