I watched Jean-Pierre Leaud's first movie, La Tour, prends gard! It was on YouTube, in French without subtitles. I didn't understand a word. It was set in the 1700's. The plot involved traveling performers who become involved in some political conflict. There are sword fights and at least one flogging. Jean-Pierre was cute in a small role.
There are things I don't understand about Leaud. He said that Truffaut was like his father and Godard like his uncle. How did his real father feel about this?
His mother got him the audition for The 400 Blows. She was an actress, his father a screenwriter. For some reason, they put him in boarding school. When he was cast in the movie, the principal wrote Truffaut a letter essentially warning him that Jean-Pierre was a brat, and, when they were out on location one day, the kid went into a store and was caught shoplifting.
Leaud was later expelled from boarding school. The retired couple he was living with kicked him out and Truffaut took him in. So where were his parents? They let their troubled teenage son move into a studio apartment rented by a bachelor in the same building he lived in. This was after Truffaut had 14-year-old Jean-Pierre do a brief butt shot in The 400 Blows.
But it all worked out very well for the young fellow. His life was transformed. He became an icon in world cinema.
It's not the same as leaving your children with Michael Jackson before there were rumors about him, but you might think about it before judging the parents of Jackson's victims too harshly.
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