Montalvo et l'enfant

De Sica with a difference; a gem that successfully wears its heart on its neo-realist sleeve, this coming-of-age tale is shot in a radiantly glowing black-and-white filled with deep shadows and pearly iridescence. Revolving around a boisterous working-class family's get-together, it links the separate stories of the Child (Ducret) and his hero Montalvo (Delachaux) through a series of short, telling incidents that are emotionally heightened by the subtle, imaginative choreography of Jean-Claude Gallotta, which integrates dance into the narrative with such skill that the dividing line between naturalism and stylisation seems to evaporate. Few such films allow us to believe so completely in the truth of their performers as real people; it is as if Mouriéras and Gallotta just happened to stumble across this family one Sunday afternoon.