Afte rL'Enfant Sauvage it comes as a disappointment.

In a subtly unobtrusive way it is irresistibly funny.

It is laced with little incidents, quirky characters, incisive insights and quintessentially French national traits of complacency that avoid chauvinism in Truffaut's gentle but never sentimental or indulgent treatment.

[Truffaut creates] a warm sense of community reminiscent of the works of Jean Renoir, and he pays homage to comic auteur Jacques Tati in meticulously constructed comic bits and a hilarious cameo by Tati’s famous character M. Hulot.