What age is L'Argent de poche appropriate for?

10 alone, 9 with a parent; 8 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is L'Argent de poche not recommended under 10?

What's in it: a boy beaten at home; a baby falls from the window; a little nudity, cigarettes. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

L'Argent de poche: what age is it for? 10 alone, 9 with a parent

10 alone, 9 with a parent.

Movie · 1976 · 1 h 45 · comedy, drama

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

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not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralonethe sweet spot

Alone from 10; from 9, with an adult or by talking about it afterwards.

The sweet spot: around 10-11, when you are the age of the children in the film, eight to eleven, and can hear that a classmate is beaten at home without it following you into the night. Why a sweet spot?

In France, zinema would say 8.

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What it's about

The lives of a motherless young man, who's just starting to find interest in women, and his physically abused, poverty stricken friend, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges most their age experience.

Why 10

A boy beaten at homeJulien lives in a shack with a mother and a grandmother who beat him; marks found at the school medical check, the police, then the teacher explaining to the class what happened. Everything is told in plain words, nothing is shown.
A baby falls from the windowGrégory, two years old, tumbles from the ninth floor in front of the neighbours and gets up laughing in the grass: a minute of suspense, then laughter. A little girl locked in by her parents shouts that she is hungry through a megaphone.
A little nudity, cigarettesA neighbour glimpsed naked behind her window, a skirt lifted by the wind, a breast feeding a baby; a first kiss at camp. Adults smoke, children swear a little.

The codes, for parents

A chronicle of children's lives in a small French town in 1976, at school, in the street and at summer camp, with no plot and no villain.

The references

François Truffaut, who had filmed a mistreated child fifteen years earlier in The 400 Blows, takes up the same subject from its bright side here: most children are fine, and the one who is not is eventually seen.
The children in the film are not actors: Truffaut recruited them in the schools of Thiers and let them speak in their own words, which you can hear in the dialogue.
The teacher's speech on children's rights is the political heart of the film. In 1976, French law did not yet punish violence against children within the family, and there was no number to call.
The baby who falls from a window and bounces is the scene everyone remembers; it was shot with a doll and a cat, and it belongs to French cinema folklore.

What you can tell them

Children go out alone from the age of six or seven: they walk into town, go to the cinema without an adult, come home in a group. Tell your child how old you were when you were allowed out alone, and how far.
School runs on Saturday mornings, you walk there, the teacher punishes, and a class is one age group in one room. Compare it with your child's week.
Nobody wears a seatbelt in the back of a car, children ride in the front, and summer camp is the obvious answer for families who do not go away.
There are no screens and no phones: to find a child you shout in the courtyard or ask the neighbours. That is what makes half the scenes in the film possible.

Why they love it

This is not a film your child will ask for: no plot, no hero, no danger. It works like a window, and it is the adult who has to open the window.
What hooks children today is the freedom of the children in the film, which looks enormous to them, and the mischief they get up to without any adult knowing.
The school scenes speak to them at once: the copying, the recitation, the older child protecting the younger, the unfair punishment.

Three questions to ask

In the film the children are out on their own all day: would you like that, or would it frighten you?
The teacher says children have nobody to defend them when things go wrong at home: who would you go and talk to?
What looks most different from your life: school, the street, or home?

What the movie brings

Children filmed as people, never as cute things.
The teacher's speech on children's rights, worth hearing again as a family.
The town, the school, the summer camp of 1976: a France grandparents will recognise.

Watching it together

Before

Say beforehand that the falling baby is fine; stay for the end, when the teacher talks about Julien, and talk about it afterwards.

After

at 10 and up

The teacher says Julien was not loved and must learn to defend himself: who can a child talk to when things go wrong at home?

See the facts

A moment that calls for a parent●●● · suggestedmeasured

Pace●●● · shownmeasured

Tense music or sound●●● · shownmeasured

A character in danger●●○ · shownreading

A weapon shown or used●●○ · shownmeasured

A weapon shown or used●●○ · saidmeasured

Abandonment, separation, confinement●●○ · shownmeasured

Alcohol●●○ · shownmeasured

Cruelty, torture, abuse●●○ · shownreading

Density of dialogue●●○ · shownmeasured

Fighting, brawls●●○ · shownmeasured

Frightening imagery●●○ · shownmeasured

Humor●●○ · shownmeasured

Kissing, romantic gestures●●○ · shownmeasured

Smoking●●○ · shownmeasured

Visible injury, blood●●○ · saidmeasured

A weapon shown or used●○○ · suggestedmeasured

Insults, hurtful words●○○ · shownmeasured

Long dark scenes, night, storm●○○ · shownmeasured

Nudity●○○ · shownreading

Smoking●○○ · saidmeasured

Swearing●○○ · shownmeasured

Visible injury, blood●○○ · shownmeasured

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A zinema reading from September 21, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made