Every Man for Himself

.... or Pares if it shows up on a sign here. The first half of this movie has the gang running an athletic club and raising money for it by a shoe-shine stand with one of their typical Rube-Goldbergesque contraptions of wheels and gears and pulley belts.... just the sort of thing I used to design myself when I was eight, where a rocket pack's design was no more difficult than drawing it. And inside the machine is someone with a brush and some shoe polish. wasn't that how the adults did it? Isn't that the charm of these movies for adults?

For kids, it was more about belonging to a group, of having friends, and that was important too. But the charm of these often plot less and always slightly disjointed stories -- like the sort of tale a child might make up -- was their kindly, childlike charm, always on the side of the kids, even when they kidded them. Yes, we knew things were more complicated than a bunch of wheels and someone on the inside of the box doing the work. But there would be time enough to learn these things. in the meantime, we could enjoy things and worry about our small problems while the adults took care of the important things.

Then we grew up. Sigh. But at least we can look at these and remember.