The Little Thief 1999

Janine grows up with her aunt and uncle, who offer little warmth, and she bears the ache of a past where her mother left her to be with a lover in Italy, never knowing her father. She clings to fantasies of luxury, sneaking American cigarettes and expensive underwear from shops, a hunger that only grows as she battles a sense of neglect and longing. When she is finally caught, she leaves home to become a live-in maid for the Longuets, a rich and friendly young couple who provide shelter and a place to work. The days are long and demanding, and the weight of her dreams collides with the grind of her routine, shaping a young life that is hungry for more than just a wage.

Tired after a long day’s work, in the cinema she falls asleep on the shoulder of Michel, a married man in his forties who is keen on poetry and music. Their chance encounter blooms into an affair that offers Janine a glimpse of affection and culture she has not known before. Michel also tries to broaden her world, encouraging her to study shorthand-typing and to see the world beyond the shopfronts and the back rooms of the houses she cleans. The relationship exposes Janine to new ideas and a different cadence of life, but it remains shaded by secrecy and risk, since Michel is still bound by his marriage.

At her course she sees a young intruder robbing the office, but she does not inform on him. This is Raoul, who waits outside for her, and soon they too start an affair. He reveals a hunger for speed and money, dreaming of buying a motor bike for racing. Janine, drawn to the thrill and the possibility of escape, helps him by robbing her employers and their guests during a dinner party. The two young criminals spin a tight, dangerous web, each act amplifying the other’s desperation. What begins as a small rebellion against a life of constraint grows into a full flight from the world that has kept them apart, and soon they are on the run, living rough beside the sea.

By the shoreline, Janine is arrested and sent to a school for young offenders. She and another girl escape, but she finds that she is now wanted and has nowhere to go. She discovers she is pregnant, an unforeseen consequence that adds to the precariousness of her situation. She plans to see an illegal abortionist, hoping to regain control over her body and her future, yet fate has other plans. In a cinema that evening, a newsreel shows soldiers setting off for war in Indochina, and among them is Raoul. Seeing him among the ranks of soldiers, Janine chooses not to keep the appointment, and the film’s end caption quietly notes that her baby is coming along well.