Young love is a favorite theme of François Truffaut, and he covers the subject once again on this disc with two shorts -- Les Mistons (The Mischief Makers) (1957) and Antoine and Colette (1962). As with many of the new wave French cinema, both are drawn from Truffaut's own experiences.

Les Mistons is a 17-minute film that focuses on five young boys between the ages of ten and twelve who are just becoming curious about sex and sensuality. They observe two lovers in their young twenties, Bernadette (Bernadette Lafont) and Gerard (Gerard Blain), from afar. At first they watch her ride her bicycle with skirt flying, flocking to examine the bicycle very closely when she goes for a swim. Later they gather every Thursday at the local tennis courts to examine her form, check out her sweaty garb, and gleefully hand back errant balls. These scenes evoke the classic Truffaut treatment and will bring a chuckle.

Humorously, the five boys decide to make life miserable for the two lovers and they stalk and taunt them every chance they get, including whooping it up when they see Gerard and Bernadette kissing in the theater. It's an innocent little film that may bring back childhood memories of the time that love was a curiosity, an unfathomable mystery, yet something that you poked fun at childishly--all with the knowledge that you will soon grow up and experience love yourself.

Besides the standard Truffaut subject matter, Les Mistons also demonstrates other Truffaut traits. Much like Hitchcock, Truffaut puts us in the position of the voyeur spying on the two lovers from a distance, and his intimate camera communicates the simple story so well that we almost don't need the subtitles to follow the action. You'll also note that this film--only his second--contains a number of his trademark tracking shots and wide-angle shots that allow us to objectively observe the entire situation.

The real gem on the DVD is the half-hour short feature Antoine and Colette, (which is Truffaut's contribution to a larger work called L'Amour à vingt ans [Love at 20]) . This film serves as the second of five films about Truffaut's alter ego Antoine Doinel, all starring the remarkable Jean-Pierre Léaud, who continues to act quite naturally and believably in this short. Truffaut's first film, of course, is his breakthrough, The 400 Blows, that leaves Antoine alone and away from his parents.

Here we find him at 18, still along, but working at the Phillips record company packaging albums. Music has become a major part of Antoine's life, as he wakes up to music, and attends the symphony quite often--all fitting with his job since Phillips is well known for its classical recordings.

Sooner or later we know that Truffaut must deal with a love theme, and it happens. Antoine is smitten at a concert with Colette (Marie-France Pisier), a slightly older girl who attends college. Again, Truffaut's camera does its magic and lets us know exactly what is going through Antoine's mind through long stretches without dialogue.

Of course it's not difficult to recognize those days of infatuation, when all poor Antoine can do is continually search for ways to stare at his new found love and gradually get closer to her--first sitting behind her to stare at her neck and then sit right next to her, before finally getting up the courage to speak to her.

They turn out to be friends, and Antoine even goes so far as to move out of his apartment so that he can move right across from her parents' Parisian flat. He even hangs up a picture of one of Colette's favorite Russian composers. While Collete's parents approve of Antoine and practically adopt the essentially parentless young man, she doesn't seem to reciprocate Antoine's romantic overtures. Will the days of unrequited love end for our hero? If not here, there are three more Antoine Doniel films to look forward to.

"They fall in love
All over the world
All the youth of the world
Bite into Life
As if it were a big apple!"

(from the song "When you're 20 and in love!" that ends the film)

If you are a Truffaut fan, a fan of French New Wave cinema, or a fan of personal independent fare, you will likely enjoy these two short films. Don't let the idea of subtitles frighten you. Truffaut is so wondrously visual in these two simple films that I often forgot that I was watching a French film, and my French is rustier than Dan Rather's homespun sayings on an election night. Unlike some foreign films, these two shorts don't make you work at heavy symbolism; instead, they are far more likely to invoke memories of adolescent love and bring a few smiles to your face.