The Best Way to Walk

A film about getting off on the 'right' foot. Dealing with the confusions of adolescent sexuality, it's less about groping one's way towards adulthood than about the search for sexual identity. Set in 1960 in a boys' summer camp, it traces the ambiguous relationship between two camp monitors. Claude Miller, Truffaut's former assistant, handles the contrasts of his script with assurance, especially those between group conformity and private individual feelings. Only at the end does his touch falter, because until then his perception of emotional nuances effectively masks the stereotypical equations he makes between sex, class and, to a lesser extent, politics. But overall it's a highly assured first feature.