I have just seen a very unusual and moving French movie at the Bijou called Ponette about a child whose mother has been killed in an auto accident. It is superb cinema with an array of child actors from a bit over three (the main character) to some children that I would guess are around 6-7; it's hard to tell about the ages and this is the film industry, after all, though it is French cinema-verite, not U.S. If anyone can manage to see it before it departs I recommend it as a movie but especially for the following reason: what is the mind of a child actor like who has to act- simulate?- a child in fulfilling the intentions of an adult's view of how or what a preschool child feels and does and speaks? I'm not referring to remarkable Shirley Temple feats of adultlike skill but to childlike actions from children who are being instructed or directed to act in such ways as to create a natural effect. In adults, we admire such performances as skilled because of all the intuitions they display as in carrying out the directions of producers, etc. Can we view preschoolers in a similar perspective with regard to comprehending the intentions of adults or are we to assume that directors of children's films have the ability to "extract" sophisticated but non-intentional behavior from children? If this strikes you as sort of nutty it wouldn't surprise me. But if it strikes you as having some developmental implications I would be interested in how people think we should approach them.

If you have responses, send them to rlittman@darkwing.uoregon.edu