Le souffle au coeur (1971)
English title: Murmur of the Heart
Directed by Louis Malle (French)
Boy actor : Benoît Ferreux

This is a coming-of-age film about a fifteen-year-old boy who has an unusually close relationship with his mother. Most of the film feels pretty light-hearted, but the end is ambiguous enough to have been very controversial at the time (and perhaps still is today).

The lead character, played by Benoît Ferreux, is charming. He is a bit of the serious intellectual type, writing essays on Albert Camus and listening to the music of Charlie Parker. During the first part of the film, he discovers that his mother is having an affair, goes to a catholic school where his interest in existential philosophy is not appreciated, participates in various adventures with his older brothers, and is innitiated to sex with a prostitute.

In the second half of the film, he falls ill and goes on a cure with his mother at a spa. There, he hangs out with other kids and suffers a bizarre treatment that involves standing naked while a nurse hoases him with freezing water. In the meantime, he confronts his mother regarding her secret lover and eventually gets closer to her... very close, in fact.

There is also a very cute younger boy that befriends him at school, but unfortunately we don't see a lot of him. I believe his name is Eric Walter and there is a picture of him on Boy Actors of Europe ( (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)).