Jean Eustache
France,
1966
French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud stars in Jean Eustache’s third narrative short as Daniel, a thief, schemer, and would-be ladies’ man who loafs around Paris with his ne’er-do-well friends in search of easy money and pretty young women. Daniel believes a new job playing a street-greeting Santa will provide him with golden opportunities to meet girls, but his own desperation continually stands in the way of success. By turns comic and melancholy, and filmed with Eustache’s signature documentary-style black-and-white cinematography, Le Père Noël marks an important stepping stone among the director’s unsentimental explorations of awkward young men who avoid self-reflection while pursuing the opposite sex.