Tom Et Lola

French with English sub-titles.

This is a beautiful French Surrealist film about what makes us human and what makes life worth living. The two main characters are a boy and girl of about 10 who, due to some indeterminate immune deficiency, have lived their entire lives in plastic bubbles, isolated from the natural world and their own natural developmental influences. Nevertheless, their humanity blossoms even without nurturance, within themselves and toward each other -- yearning, stretching, reaching until it can no longer be contained by even the most constricting and ugly environment.

The children are intentionally semi-allegorical: naked, their hairless bodies and shaven heads hide nothing. They are elemental, undecorated and unadulterated human beings, and when they touch each other the contact is so primal that we all shiver. This film is a masterpiece of direction (Bertrand Arthuys) and cinematography (Francois Catonne), and the children were superb.You will find nothing disappointing here, from the first scene to the last.

VHS transfer. Sorry.