Les Mistons

Five boys, themselves tormented by the first stirrings of adolescence, torment a young woman on whom they are fixated, trailing around after her as she tries to spend the summer holidays with her boyfriend. There's an overdone commentary, but the kids - hot, bothered and obnoxious with it - are the authentic article. Leroux's throbbing score and Lafont's physical presence - optimum femaleness, guaranteed to rattle any pubescent male - are just right. The startling slow-mo shot of a boy sniffing the saddle of Lafont's bicycle may be seen as, among other things, Truffaut's rude rejoinder to Old Wave sentimentalism.