Le gosse
Louise Jaillette
France | 2012 | 37 min
Language : French
Subtitle : English
Thibaut is on the threshold of becoming an adult. Although he still bears a strong resemblance to a child, he moves around his father’s farm with the self-assurance of a young man. Yet the hard work does not fulfil all the desires awakening in him. A skilfully told coming-of-age story narrated entirely without adults. The film is a wonderful expression of the slight panic occasioned by looming adulthood.
Thibaut is on the threshold of becoming an adult. Although he still bears a strong resemblance to a child, he moves around his father’s farm with the self-assurance of a young man, exhibiting the entrepreneurial spirit of the farmer and handling the sheep and chickens with the same caring, pragmatic approach farmers take with their livestock. Yet the hard work does not fulfil all the desires awakening in Thibaut. When summer ends, his good friend Ophélie will not share everything with him as she did in the past: she has kissed another boy.
Louise Jaillette turns a sensitive eye on the boy embedded in his landscape. Carefully framed and, for the most part, working from the distance of an observer – Jaillette asks Thibaut only a few questions – Le gosse bestows its time exclusively upon the boy without adult intrusion. This skilfully told coming-of-age story ends with a breathtaking occurrence that unites the slight panic occasioned by looming adulthood with the wisp of a miracle.
Jenny Billeter
g.amgar@femis.fr+33153412116